AS thousands of runners made their final preparations for yesterday’s London Marathon, a schoolboy was completing his own version of the gruelling race.

Jay Wroe-Brown skated the 26.2-mile marathon distance at Rollerworld in Colchester...and added extra spice to the challenge by completing a lap while playing his saxophone.

He finished his 300 circuits of the rink in a little over three hours, and was still not too dizzy to show off his balancing skills by skating a lap backwards.

Jay, 14, from Prettygate, Colchester, raised £1,700 for charities with the wacky stunt.

A family friend said they would cough up an extra £10 if the youngster skated with his sax – and turned up in person to witness the amusing spectacle at first-hand.

Jay, who is “flexi-schooled”, dividing his time between Colchester High School and lessons with mum Kathy, is donating half his sponsorship pledges to help earthquake victims in Haiti.

The rest will go to help Christian charity, Faith in Action, build windmills for communities in Malawi.

His mum Kathy said: “He managed to do the lap playing the saxophone without too many problems, and even going backwards he seemed fine.

“It looked like pretty hard work, but he thinks it has been worth it.”

Rollerworld helped out with the challenge by agreeing to reserve the rink for the afternoon, at no cost. Kathy added: “We are very grateful to them.”