Pie eating half marathon runner raises cash for charity

Tim Anderson vomited every kilometre for the second half of his half marathon and all for a good cause. Anderson ran the Fullers GreatSights Kerikeri Half Marathon in New Zealand yesterday, eating a pie per kilometre for 21km to raise money for charity. "The first half was a lot more enjoyable than the second half," Anderson said.

He said at first he was doing a good pace but about halfway, he started vomiting and getting slower. "It was horrible," he said. "I was thinking 'oh my God, I don't want another pie'." It started after he joked that a half marathon wouldn't be challenging unless he ate a pie every kilometre, in the wake of a good time in the Auckland Marathon last month.



A colleague got people to pledge money for charity if Anderson did it. He did the half marathon in 2 hours, an hour more than he could have managed without pies, he thought. The hardest part was eating a bacon and egg pie at the 11km mark. "It was really dry, hard to get down and I knew I had another 10 pies to get down." Following the run he didn't feel like pie.

Not all the money had been collected, but Anderson was hoping to get around $2000. He is donating the money raised to Movember and to a close family friend who is having breast cancer treatment, so she can take her two young children on holiday. Auckland dietitian and sports nutritionist Caryn Zinn said the run was a silly thing to do, although it wouldn't cause any long-term damage. "I think it's fairly irresponsible, there would be better ways to raise money."