TWO Tavistock headteachers are running the London Marathon next year to raise money for ambitious new sporting facilities for the town. Tavistock College principal Colin Eves and Kelly College headmaster Mark Steed will be running the 26-mile course for the first time to help raise the £2.3-million needed for the developments. Their colleges are at the forefront to develop an all-weather pitch and an eight-lane competition standard athletics track in the grounds of Tavistock College ?with each putting up £100,000 towards the project. They are working in partnership with Devon County Council, West Devon Borough Council and Tavistock Athletic Club, while bids have been made to a number of sporting organisations. Plans are also well advanced for an upgrade to the existing facilities in the school?s sports hall, including two squash courts, a dance studio, full size fitness suite and covered link to the swimming pool along with disabled facilities, a café, offices and meeting rooms. Colin, 47, is in training four times a week and receiving, with Mark, specialist help from Tavistock Athletics coach Martin Exley. Colin said: ?These facilities are crucial for the area. We have talented people locally who do not have access to proper training facilities and having this track will encourage them and more people to use it. The people of Tavistock deserve the best.? Fellow runner, Mark Steed, 41, is no stranger to the athletics track himself. He is a former Cambridge University athletics blue, the coach of the Oxbridge athletics team?s 1997 and 2001 US tour of the Ivy League and played rugby for the East Midlands. This is also his first marathon. He said: ?Any town of our size needs good sporting facilities and I am delighted to play my part to help provide them. The training is going steadily and I?m up to one hour of running.? The two plan to take part in the Tavistock Seven on November 12 and one or two half-marathons as part of their training. Construction of the all-weather pitch and athletics track is set to start in April, 2007 and due to be completed by late November.