Kent soldier running Brighton Marathon for military charity

03 April 2024

Daniel Gray will be running the Brighton Marathon on 7 April, and is raising funds for SSAFA, the Armed Forces charity.

Daniel lives in Royal Tunbridge Wells, Kent with his two children. He currently works in IT for Oxleas NHS Foundation Trust, or as he puts it, “fixing screens and helping people who have unplugged everything and tried to put it back together themselves”. While his day job is in IT he recently joined the 4th Battalion Princess of Wales Royal Regiment, albeit a bit later than he originally expected.

“I’m a bit of a first in my immediate family. I was going to join the Army in 2003, but I ended up with a kid on the way and then 20 years of alcoholism put that on hold. I decided to get my act together and pursued my military interests during COVID. After basic training and CIC to qualify as an Infanteer, I most recently completed the basic Assault Pioneer Course.”

The Brighton Marathon will not be Daniel’s first, although he is going to be more prepared this time around. His previous attempt was on a bit of a whim and he ran with no breakfast, no water, and no game plan for the event. “I finished the full 42 kilometres with the last 15km being the hardest I ever pushed myself before in beautiful sideways rain. I thought the bones in my feet were broken. I hated it and loved it at the same time.”

Daniel has since turned himself into a regular runner using proper preparation, training, and hydration to slowly improve his distances and times. He has been running half-marathons every week in preparation for the full in Brighton, and then plans to continue running a marathon every week in the leadup to a 100km ultramarathon this September.