FIVE charity supporters have raised £23,000 by re-enacting an epic piece of Greek history by following in the footsteps of the world’s first marathon runner.

Simon Bennett, Rod Densham, Andy Nuttall, Nick Moglia and Nic Yeoman, were inspired to re-create the first marathon after watching the London 2012 Olympics.

In December they traced the original route taken by the messenger Pheidippides, who ran from the battlefield at Marathon, to the Acropolis, in 490BC.

They battled heat and rough terrain but their feat ended safely, raising £23,879 for Charlbury- based charity, SpecialEffect.

“The locals thought we were mad,” said Mr Moglia, 53, and from Witney.

Mr Moglia is the owner of international distribution firms Zycko and Hardware.

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As well as being a veteran marathon runner, he has been an ambassador for SpecialEffect since first raising funds for it in the Three Peaks Challenge in 2009.

He added: “Part of our route took us through a residential area and one of the team, Andy Nuttall, was bitten by a dog after just one mile.

“But we all completed the challenge, and we’ve been overwhelmed by both the messages of support, and the generous donations that we’ve received on behalf of SpecialEffect.”

The runners are ambassadors or trustees of SpecialEffect, which helps people with disabilities to have a better quality of life through the use of technology.

Also among the team was father-of-three Mr Densham, 56, from Charlbury.

Mr Densham is MD of the audio software company Sonnox, based in Finstock.

He said: “We wanted to do something truly different and challenging and this was both.

“We were lucky to have our friend Nigel Davis already out in Athens, to run with us and also help us plan our route, and a friend of his also drove a support car, so we could stop every eight kilometres or so and have a drink.”

l For more details on the SpeciaEffect charity visit: specialeffect.org.uk l To sponsor the team go to justgiving.com/teams/SpecialEffectRealMarathon