{"id":959193,"date":"2026-05-14T11:50:16","date_gmt":"2026-05-14T11:50:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/959193\/"},"modified":"2026-05-14T11:50:16","modified_gmt":"2026-05-14T11:50:16","slug":"world-record-attempt-by-rodley-runner","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/959193\/","title":{"rendered":"World record attempt by Rodley runner"},"content":{"rendered":"

Rodley runner and Horsforth Harrier Ciaran Forde had a world record in his sights when he set off on the Leeds Half Marathon at the weekend.<\/p>\n

Ciaran is systems and data manager at the children\u2019s bed charity Zarach<\/a> and also a very keen runner, wanted to raise the profile of the charity and raise cash, which buys beds and sleep essentials such as pyjamas. So he decided to aim for the world\u2019s fastest half marathon\u2026.running in pyjamas, a time of 1hr 23mins and 57seconds.<\/p>\n

\u2018I trained, but maybe not as much as I should have,\u2019 Ciaran, 32, admitted afterwards \u2018by the halfway stage, I knew I wasn\u2019t going to beat the record, so I decided to just enjoy it.\u2019 He did enjoy his run, especially with the cheers from the crowds including his wife and three sons.<\/p>\n

His running kit was an ordinary pair of pyjamas from Marks and Spencer. \u2018I put out an appeal on social media for someone to embroider them with the Zarach logo. Even better than that, she made me a hat, I think the crowds loved it!\u2019<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Ciaran came in at a more than respectable 1:31:32, the winner did it in 1:07:30, but wasn\u2019t wearing pyjamas! Plus, he raised \u00a31.577 for Zarach.<\/p>\n

\u201cI remember saying to myself as I ran, I\u2019d never do this again, it\u2019s awful!\u2019 he admitted, but afterwards he changed his mind. \u2018It\u2019s a world record for a reason, so I\u2019m going to have another go in Middlesbrough on March 7 next year, that gives me plenty of time to train\u2019.<\/p>\n

He chose Middlesbrough because it\u2019s one of the places where Zarach delivers beds. Plus, the course is reasonably flat!<\/p>\n

\u2018I\u2019ve said it now, it\u2019s in print in the West Leeds Dispatch, so I\u2019ll have to do it!\u2019 said Ciaran.<\/p>\n

Ciaran\u2019s fundraising page is here.<\/a><\/p>\n

Leeds-based charity Zarach works closely with schools, local authorities and partner organisations to identify children in need of beds and essentials such as pyjamas so they can get a good night\u2019s sleep. The charity says children are turning up for school after sleeping on floors, in baths or soiled beds, which impacts not just on their school day, but also their health and wellbeing. More than 15,000 beds have been delivered since they started in 2017. Areas covered include West Yorkshire, Doncaster, Tees Valley, Liverpool and Stockport.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Rodley runner and Horsforth Harrier Ciaran Forde had a world record in his sights when he set off…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":959194,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8814],"tags":[748,393,4884,242375,1860,267967,222020,159547,16,15,28121,163521],"class_list":{"0":"post-959193","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-leeds","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-england","10":"tag-great-britain","11":"tag-horsforth-harriers","12":"tag-leeds","13":"tag-leeds-half-marathon","14":"tag-rodley","15":"tag-run-for-all","16":"tag-uk","17":"tag-united-kingdom","18":"tag-world-record","19":"tag-zarach"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/959193","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=959193"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/959193\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/959194"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=959193"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=959193"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=959193"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}