Of the 92,000 people that applied to take part in this most prestigious event, 45,000 people were accepted. For one reason or another, only 35,044 actually started the race but a huge 34,420 actually crossed the finish line before 6:30pm on April 13th 2008.
One of those proud finishers was Russell Kay, running in support of The Eye Fund. Russell successfully completed the 26.2 miles in 5 hours and 32 minutes and actually managed to run all the way — we are completely in awe of his achievement! He finished just after the Masai Warriors but before the toilet (yes really!), a couple of rhinos and the camels, as well as lots of other ordinary runners. His preparation and training helped to ensure that his only side effect was to be aching all over for a few days afterwards and already he is thinking that it might not be such a bad thing to enter again in the future.
Amazingly, even after the race is completed Russell’s sponsorship total is still rising, and currently stands at £2,448! Thank you to absolutely everybody that has helped to make Russell’s hard work so worthwhile. If you’ve not had time to sponsor Russell so far you still have until July 13th left to add your donation, which you can do here: Justgiving – Russell Kay’s Fundraising Page.
We did manage to take a few pictures of the day, but it just felt wrong to stop clapping and cheering just to take pictures. Official photographs will be uploaded soon. Until then, here are the few we took: Helen Rowlands’ photos tagged with floralondonmarathon on Flickr.
If you’re stuck for something to do on April 26th 2009 you could do one of two things:
- you could join the thousands of heroes running to raise money in the world’biggest fundraising event, and perhaps help to top up our funds this time next year
- if running just isn’t your thing or your application isn’t successful, you could spend the day somewhere along those 26.2 miles and shout and cheer every single one of those runners — it really will be appreciated!
Entry to the Flora London Marathon is not just a matter of entering and getting in; Russell has applied most years since his last run in 1999 and not been successful until this year. So, that means that it can be difficult for charities to organise their fundraising if they can’t just decide to enter a runner. Because of that, FLM offer a certain number of tickets for sale to charities, who then offer them to runners who can guarantee to raise £??? amount of pounds for them. THIS is what we’re hoping to do — The Eye Fund have already applied for a small number of Golden Tickets for the 2010 event, so if you would be interested in running to support us in two years time, contact us about it.