It was a story that melted hearts and scrambled minds. Two years ago Robert Young was sitting on his sofa watching Mo Farah in the London Marathon when his girlfriend bet him 20p that he could not run 26.2 miles. The next day he proved her wrong. Then he repeated the trick, only faster. Incredibly, by his telling, a year later he had completed 370 marathons, often getting up at 2.45am to run round Richmond Park in London before he went to work.
Soon there were flattering articles in national newspapers – as well as substantial amounts raised for charity – while his book, Marathon Man, was published in April. In it Young explained that he had learnt to block out pain after enduring horrific abuse from his father as a child, including having a nail hammered through his foot and being zipped in a suitcase and pushed down the stairs.
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