The Phantom's Proxy Marathon
Thank you sending me photos of the marathon, guys. I felt (almost) as if I were there - minus the freezing cold and the rain, of course...)
Benedict was a little further up the way (though not that much) and experiencing a completely different marathon. He admits he was utterly freezing and that rain was threatening - so I owe him a big thank you for sticking it out long enough to get pictures.
I'll email Lloyd Scott's team and see if they know when he's going to pass us. I don't hold out much hope for catching him this time, but I'll suggest he puts an estimated time on various points on his website for next year...
Kirsty's pics show the camaraderie that the marathon invokes. And I can see that by the time the runners passed Woolwich Road at least, they were all still wearing their costumes, smiling - and the sun was out.
Benedict was a little further up the way (though not that much) and experiencing a completely different marathon. He admits he was utterly freezing and that rain was threatening - so I owe him a big thank you for sticking it out long enough to get pictures.
Lloyd Scott and his Iron Man costume are taking it a step at a time and he won't be finishing 'til Friday (so it's possible we may see him yet) but Benedict did find a lady on stilts
At first I thought the guy behind her was flagging already - until I realised that he appears to be dragging a sandwich board.
And that's what I love about the London Marathon. All the others around the world seem to take themselves so seriously. We just arse about and have fun (if you can call wearing a filthy, smelly rhinoceros suit for 26 miles 'fun...')
I particularly liked this nurse...
...though I'm not convinced she would have approved of this naughty dog who's taken his head off (a surreal thought) and is enjoying a sneaky fag...
I'll email Lloyd Scott's team and see if they know when he's going to pass us. I don't hold out much hope for catching him this time, but I'll suggest he puts an estimated time on various points on his website for next year...Labels: Events
posted by The Greenwich Phantom at
09:29
11 Comments:
The BBC did a great interview with the Maasai warriors after the finish. They'd come over to run the London Marathon in order to raise enough money to build a well to provide their village with clean water. The two guys running beside them in camo trousers are Greenforce, the charity that's helping them.
Anyway, the warriors were running in home-made shoes cobbled together (literally!) from discarded car tyres. The BBC website had a good photo of the footwear. Absolutely incredible when you think how much we take for granted. The reviewer asked if they'd found it hard running 26 miles on the roads, in hail and rain, to which one of the warriors grinned and replied that they run 26 miles all the time, when they're out killing lions. The only thing they seemed at all surprised about was "the shouting - everybody shouting - shouting all the time"!
the website is here:
http://www.maasaimarathon.org
and if anyone feels like making a donation, the site accepts Paypal. They've raised £26k so far, the well will cost between 20 and 60.
Wow - so they were REAL massai warriers. Fab. I'll visit the site now.
Lloyd Scott passed Maze Hill about 10.30 which is the 6 mile mark I believe. Keep going Lloyd, I have nothing but admiration for you.
MJ
10.30 this morning? D'oh! I missed him again!!!!!
He's just passed The Cutty Sark. Pictures to follow shortly!
the late times are now up on the results site - and Michelle Frost, the 22-year-old stiltwalker, did manage to complete the course with a finish time of 8h36. What an amazing effort.
That is amazing Kirsty. The dedication of these people is amazing. I also love the marathon for the competitors that have a complete disregard for sporting prowess, apart from the smoking dogs, just after stilt girl was a drunk Glaswegian in tartan shorts swigging from a bottle of beer and singing at the top of his voice, now I wonder what his time was?
and on the other hand, there are the somewhat dubious competitors who have a total disregard for any sort of sporting prowess whatsoever... there are rumours going around about a character who competes every year, dressed as a clown and collecting money. Seeing him walking at the beginning of the race, and having been apparently "overtaken" by him last year, someone on the Runner's World forum made a note of his number this year - and if you look it up on the results website, he got to Maze Hill in 2 hours, went missing for the next 30k, then went over the 40k mat just after 5 hours, and the finish line 40 mins later.
In other words, he was moving at 20 minutes/mile (3 miles/hr) for the first 6.5 miles, then managed to up his speed to 10 mins/mile (6 miles/hr) for the next 18 or so miles, before slowing down again to walk the last mile in 40 minutes (less than 1.5 miles/hr!).
So - either he suddenly metamorphosed into a decent club runner 2 hours into the race and collapsed again just before the finish, or he took advantage of Greenwich's transport links and hopped on the train to Waterloo, walked over Waterloo Bridge and strategically rejoined the course just before the timing mat... If the latter, it leaves a rather nasty taste in the mouth.
(btw - the later finishers also have missing chip times - e.g. the stiltwalker - because after a certain time the organisers simply roll up the timing mats. It's why the finish times for anyone over about 6.5 hours don't appear online the same day - the times are taken manually by a couple of people with stopwatches and clipboards after all the automatic timing equipment is removed.)
Benedict - if you got a photo of your drunk Glaswegian, I could look up his number for you and find out his time!
so.... all the excitement is over until the Greenwich half-marathon - which sold out so incredibly quickly that when I tried to get a place 4 or 5 days after entries opened, I was already too late... gutted! ;-)
oooh, sorry, didn't realise that was so long!
I did'nt get his number kirsty, it was pouring with rain and I was laughing to much to get a picture!
Damn! I saw stilt-girl but missed pissed Glaswegian! Ahh, there's always next year (assuming he didn't peg out at mile 3).
And - as a recovering ex-runner myself - I applaud the mischievous (if slightly unoriginal) audacity of thunder-thief clownie man.
What whiners the Runners' World forum people must be - "I was beaten by a clown - and it wasn't even a REAL clown! He was CHEATING! OK, the rhinocerous beat me fair and square."
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