A 22-year-old from Walton Upon Thames ran an 80km ultramarathon from Gravesend to Teddington on Sunday (5 October) to raise money for the Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI).

Will Robinson, who works for Rockstar energy drinks, started his run at the Gravesend RNLI station, before continuing through to the Tower and Chiswick RNLI stations, and finishing at the Teddington station.

In an exclusive interview with Teddington Nub News, Will said that he's "always loved running".

He explained that he used to play football but after he faced a lot of injuries, he decided to start running instead.

Speaking about why he chose to raise money for the RNLI, Will said: "When I was younger, we always used to go down to Brighton and Chiswick and obviously the boats were always out there. And then I watched the TV show, Saving Lives at Sea, and that really sparked an interest.

"I also massive respect for the people going out and realising that the majority of them are just volunteers and their saving people's lives. I'm a bit of an adrenaline junkie myself, so I was like this is awesome."

Will's dad is also a volunteer for the charity so they both "have the same interest," he said.

He added: "So, I was just like, you know what? I'm gonna put in a good name for him. You know, his son's doing a massive run and raising loads of money. So, I was like 'I'm gonna put two and two together' and going to do a run from Gravesend and go to all the stations across London and then finish at Teddington."

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Will says that he thought the first 60km "were really easy".

He added: "It sounds a bit vain, but it was. And then once I got to to Chiswick, I was like, right, this is really when the pain comes in, but I just kind of stuck through it.

"The journey from Chiswick to Teddington was tough. I remember going through Richmond and I was like, 'I don't know how I'm going to do this', but just with grit and determination, I just got through it."

Will finished his run at the Teddington RNLI station (Credit: Teddington RNLI)

Will says he only trained two months for the challenge.

He stopped at each RNLI station refuel before running again. He said he had about 30 or 40 friends and family members at the last station in Teddington.

The runner finished the marathon in an incredible nine hours and 40 minutes, which he says went by "pretty quickly".

 Speaking about his achievement, Will said: "I'm over the moon. Thank you to everyone who supported and donated and to the whole RNLI team."

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Will has raised over £1,000 as part of his ultramarathon.

You can donate to his JustGiving page here.