Magnets aid ultra distance runner

Bob Brown is keeping up a 10,000 calories a day intake

Magnetism and pasty power is helping a man from Cornwall run across America for a children's charity.

Teacher Bob Brown, 35, from Stoke Climsland, is 46 days into the 3,100-mile race from California to New York.

Mr Brown, who is leading the race, is pounding out more than a marathon distance each day to raise money for Country Holidays for Inner City Kids.

Magnets have helped ease shin problems, while Cornish pasties enable him to take in 10,000 calories a day.

Too short

Writing on his website, Mr Brown said the race was "brutal" and the amount of climbing and descending he and the other runners were doing "wrecked the legs".

He said shin problems were affecting him and other competitors, but he disclosed that his massage therapist "put some magnets on them and, lo and behold, I had a great run today".

Having suffered the 43C heat of the Mojave desert, he is now into Missouri, where he said the rain had made him feel at home.

Mr Brown, who was born in Bushey in Hertfordshire, turned to ultra-distance running because he found marathons too short.

He is the only Briton in the 70-day Run Across America race.

Mr Brown is leading the race after day 46. It has taken him just over 318 hours to run 1,917 miles (3,086 kilometres), giving him a lead of nearly 34 hours over Frenchman Luc Dumont St Priest in second place.