Ukrainian runs marathon around her house to raise money for doctors

Tatiana Grinuova has run 21 marathons all over the globe. They were all the same distance, 42.2 kilometers, but the very last one was more challenging than the others.

That’s because Grinuova ran it around her house, making 540 circles around the building. She did it for a good cause: raising money to buy protective gear for medical workers who are treating patients with COVID-19.

“Finishing a marathon is very hard,” Grinuova said during a live stream on YouTube after the marathon. “Around the house, it’s three times harder.” 

Grinuova is the co-founder of online lifestyle media outlet Bit.ua and a running enthusiast. She is also the founder of the Kind Challenge project, which encourages people to run for charity.

She has a long history of raising money through running. In 2018 alone, she ran 12 marathons and raised Hr 1 million for the Tabletochki charity fund that helps children with cancer.

When the coronavirus pandemic hit Ukraine, her project, together with the Ukrainian Philanthropic Marketplace charity fund, launched the Breathe initiative. It aims to raise Hr 1 million (currently, nearly $40,000) to buy medical equipment and protective gear for hospital employees. 

So far, they have raised nearly Hr 300,000 ($11,000), which includes Hr 80,000 that Grinuova raised herself running around the house on April 21.

Along with her team, which helped to organize the marathon’s live stream, Grinuova was inspired by British athlete James Campbell, who ran a marathon in his six-meter-long backyard and raised over $32,000 for the British National Health Service in early April.

Prior to that, several other running enthusiasts in China and France ran charity marathons and ultramarathons (50 kilometers). Under quarantine at home, they jogged inside their apartments and on balconies.

Grinuova wrote on Facebook that she previously ran marathons in New York, Rome, Amsterdam and other cities, but this one was the most difficult.

It took her nearly five hours to make 540 80-meter circles around her house — a total of 2,160 turns at each corner of the building.

“Terrible,” Grinuova wrote on Facebook. “I could not accelerate anywhere.”

On the bright side, the runner had access to water, snacks and a bathroom throughout the whole run. During normal marathons, that is only available at certain checkpoints.

Still, she says she wouldn’t recommend her round-the-house marathon to anyone.

“I still can’t recover,” she said.

Grinuova’s marathon was broadcast on YouTube.

As she was jogging, other running enthusiasts shared their advice live. The broadcast also featured author Kateryna Babkina reading her poems and DJ Daria Kolomiec playing a vinyl set.

After Grinuova completed the marathon, she thanked everyone who tuned in to watch and helped her organize the event.

She also encouraged the audience to support Kind Challenge and the Ukrainian Philanthropic Marketplace’s initiative to provide medical workers with the protection they need to fight the coronavirus.

“Everything we do is aimed at attracting attention to this issue,” she said.