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The Marathon Empty The Marathon

Post  eddie Mon Apr 18, 2011 6:44 am

Marathon finish for blinded officer

17 April 2011

The Marathon N0637061303056202363A
PC David Rathband completes the London Marathon

Blinded Pc David Rathband completed the Virgin London Marathon alongside tens of thousands of charity runners, celebrities and record-breakers.

The 43-year-old Northumbria Police traffic officer was guided by a friend around the 26.2-mile course, which he finished in six hours and 49 minutes. He said he used the memory of Raoul Moat's gun attack to get him to the finish line.

"During the race I took myself back to the night I was shot, it hurt that much - but not as much as when I was shot - and I literally ran in my mind from the car to the local hospital up the road just to finish the last three miles," he said. "People will use whatever things they need to get them through pain barriers."

Kenyan Emmanuel Mutai set a new course record in winning the elite men's race with a time of two hours, four minutes and 40 seconds, beating the previous best by 30 seconds. It was a double success for the east African country, as Mary Keitany claimed a commanding victory in the women's race, clocking a time of two hours 19 minutes and 19 seconds.

One of the London Marathon's most popular features is that fun runners compete in the same race as the elite athletes, and an eclectic group of people took full advantage of the limelight to break 34 marathon world records.

Fastest ever times for a super hero, cartoon character and marching band were among the Guinness World Records broken.

David Stone, 41, from Exmouth, Devon, ran as Superman in 2:42.46, while Jon Morgan, 43, from Sheffield, dressed as Fred Flintstone to become the fastest cartoon character in a time of 2:46.59.

Olympic rowing champion James Cracknell was one of the first celebrities over the finish line. He was running for brain injury charity Headway after suffering brain damage when he was hit by a truck in a cycling endurance race in America last July. The 38-year-old clocked in at three hours and three minutes, and said he had not been able to train hard enough to achieve an even quicker time.

"You've got to put the running in and I haven't had time since the accident to put the running in. I went to the locker to get some extra energy at 20 miles and it was empty."

Meanwhile a couple from Brighton took time out from the race after 20 miles to get married. Andrew Ford and Katrina Scaife tied the knot at the London Marriott hotel in West India Quay before completing the remaining six miles.

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Post  precinct14 Mon Apr 18, 2011 7:19 am

The slower you were, the hotter it got today. They all done bloody well.
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Post  eddie Mon Apr 18, 2011 7:42 am

From the very first time I witnessed this great event (back in 1985) it struck me as an extraordinarily emotional occasion: a metaphor, if you like, for human life itself.

I once expanded on this theme here on ATU but- for the present- I can't seem to locate the thread. I'll work on it.

You're a runner yourself, precinct, so you probably have some idea about what I'm trying to describe here.

The story of the blinded cop (above) gives an inkling.



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Post  Guest Mon Apr 18, 2011 10:43 am

Any one who completes a marathon has acheived a wodnerful feat.
I ran in 5 the first was done in very hot weather and I ran and walked a lot it took me nearly 4 hours and thirty minutes . I competed in 4 of the next 5 years and have a fastest time of 3 hours and 32 minutes.
Not fast yet I was pleased. I would recommend it for every distance runner .

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Post  precinct14 Mon Apr 18, 2011 10:04 pm

eddie wrote:From the very first time I witnessed this great event (back in 1985) it struck me as an extraordinarily emotional occasion: a metaphor, if you like, for human life itself.

I once expanded on this theme here on ATU but- for the present- I can't seem to locate the thread. I'll work on it.

You're a runner yourself, precinct, so you probably have some idea about what I'm trying to describe here.

The story of the blinded cop (above) gives an inkling.

It can be very emotional, Eddie. I salute anyone that can manage to complete one. I would find it a very daunting prospect now. I completed a 17 mile road race last weekend, in 22 degrees, and I just wasn't on my game, knew it wasn't going to go well, within half a mile. I got round, but it was the worst run of my life, even though my time was respectable. The thought of having to do another 10 miles, in similar temperatures, would do my head in.

I did the '83 and '84 London marathons, when I was nippy. It's a damn sight easier, the quicker you get them over with. I remember walking up past Greenwich Observatory for my first one, in '83, filling up, surrounded as I was by all these somewhat nervous, fellow runners. So many courageous stories come out of every one, too. There are the terminally ill, who may finally be beaten by the greatest and toughest of all challenges, but won't be beaten by this one. One of the most emotional moments in the long history of the event was when the brain-damaged boxer Michael Watson completed the London in something like 6 days, and was encouraged all the way round the course, and embraced at the finish, by Chris Eubank, the opponent that caused that brain damage. Hard to watch without shedding a tear.



Last edited by precinct14 on Mon Apr 18, 2011 11:05 pm; edited 1 time in total
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Post  Guest Mon Apr 18, 2011 10:29 pm

precinct14 wrote: One of the most emotional moments in the long history of the event was when the brain-damaged boxer Michael Watson completed the London in something like 6 days, and was encouraged all the way round the course, and embraced at the finish, by Chris Eubank, the opponent that caused that brain damage. Hard to watch without shedding a tear.

...that's poetry...

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Post  ISN Tue Apr 19, 2011 12:07 am

this video is a man pushing, dragging, swimming his disabled son through a triathlon

it's so moving if you have time to watch it


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Post  eddie Thu Apr 21, 2011 8:36 pm

Why We Run by Robin Harvie – review

Extreme distance runners really are a breed apart

Tim Lewis The Observer, Sunday 17 April 2011

The Marathon Flora-London-Marathon-007
London’s Marathon: too easy, apparently. Photograph: Ryan Pierse/Getty Images

This morning, possibly as you read this review with a coffee and a pastry, nearly 40,000 men, women and costumed rhinos are lining up in Blackheath to race 26.2 miles across the capital. There is a good chance you will know, or have been arm-twisted to sponsor, one of the competitors – a fact that would have been unimaginable to the organisers of the first London Marathon 30 years ago. Running has long gone mainstream, and the preparation, equipment and expectations have been refined to the point that only a tiny fraction of today's starters, perhaps 500 runners, will fail to make it round the course to Buckingham Palace.

The Marathon Why-We-Run
Why We Run by Robin Harvie

This popularity has severely devalued the marathon's currency. Even 10 years ago, you could have held a room spellbound with your impossible tales of endurance and adversity; now it is the anecdotal equivalent of knowing how to juggle. Hence the rise of the ultra-distance runner. For these hardy individuals, 26 miles is literally a preamble, a point to change their shirt and stock up on fruit pastilles and goji berries before it gets serious. Think of the running novice Eddie Izzard completing 43 marathons in 51 days for Sport Relief in 2009, or the American Dean Karnazes, who ran 50 marathons in 50 states on 50 consecutive days and was ranked 27th in Time magazine's 100 most influential people in 2007.

Robin Harvie is a fully signed-up nipple-bleeding, toenail-popping ultra-distance runner, but his story starts accessibly and aspirationally enough. Never a natural athlete, he decided to run the London Marathon in 2000, when he was in his early 20s. His first training session ended with him coughing and spluttering after a mile and walking back home. But he completed the marathon, ran some others and started to wonder what would happen if he just kept running.

One particular race caught his imagination: the Spartathlon, a 153-mile overnight trail run from Athens to Sparta that traces the original path of the Athenian messenger Pheidippides in 490BC as he sought help against the Persians in the Battle of Marathon. It attracts the best ultra-distance athletes in the world, fewer than 30% of whom finish. Part of the appeal for Harvie was the exclusivity, a dinner-party one-upmanship: "I wanted to see whether I could take on something that no one I knew had ever done," he admits. But, as his training intensified to the point where he was doing little but run, sleep and eat, he started to realise a more elemental change was taking place. As Harvie confronts his family's past and traces his own shift into adulthood, Why We Run becomes a paean to the transformative effect of pushing your body way beyond your imagined limits.

Many of us enjoy the head-clearing effects of pounding the pavements. But Harvie's contention is much stronger, almost evangelical: a gentle jog, or even a marathon, barely scratches the surface of human potential; if we want transcendental rewards – including "an increased hypersensitivity of body and mind" and a "heightened sense of moral being" – then we need to physically destroy ourselves and learn from the experience.

There is much to enjoy in this erudite, literary memoir, particularly Harvie's gruesome account of the Spartathlon, but it is hard not to be wary of anyone who claims so unblushingly to have found "the answer". In the end, you have some sympathy with his long-neglected wife when she tells him: "You want to do something extraordinary. I see that. But just once, then enough. We have a life to get on with, and I don't want to do that alone."

guardian.co.uk © Guardian News and Media Limited 2011
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Post  Guest Mon May 09, 2011 4:53 pm

It was not a marathon but on Saturday I came second in a three kilometre run . I was pipped on the post , but I was happy . It was my best run for 2 seasons.

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Post  Guest Tue May 10, 2011 12:38 am

ANDY wrote:There was a guy here in Belgium last year who set out to run a marathon every single day for a year - 365 marathons in 365 days.

During a first attempt he had to give up after a couple of weeks for medical reasons, but his second attempt proved to be succesfull. I believe he has received some international attention with his achievement, I'll try to find an article on Mr. Marathon Man later on!
I believe he ran all over the world even in Antartica . I am not sure if he ran 365 , but he ran a lot.

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Post  ISN Tue May 10, 2011 1:17 am

The Marathon Article-1019117-0136BB2200000578-95_468x308

I'm sure I wasn't the first to post this picture (she snickered)
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Post  ISN Tue May 10, 2011 2:04 am

lol!

I tried to explain the concept of TWIX to Torin last weekend......(as he's on the Kit-Kat bandwagon)

I'm not really sure if I did it justice

it was my mother's favourite.....heheheheh......(not much of a recommendation, but I think it comforted her during her many, devastating miscarried pregnancies......most of which I was to blame for - for some unfathomable reason....scratch ehhehee.....I'm glad I didn't take that shit onboard)

I told him that they were two chocolate/biscuit/caramel covered bars of delight

but I really think he wouldn't understand until he tried them......or it...or both of them....or the pair of them.....

I've tried to get him off Kit-Kat......but he's adamant......success in getting him onto Juicy Fruit at least.......

I can hardly even remember the pleasures of Kit-Kat......

but TWIX, oh yeah......

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Post  eddie Wed Jun 29, 2011 5:58 pm

Marathon is Eddie Kidd's 'greatest feat'

By Clark Ainsworth

BBC News, Brighton

The Marathon _53258443_000067375-1
Eddie Kidd jumped the Great Wall of China in 1993

Former daredevil Eddie Kidd has spent the past two months completing what his wife has described as his greatest feat yet - the London Marathon.

In his prime Kidd was one of the best stunt riders in the world.

He first stunned spectators and fans in December 1979, when he jumped 80ft (24m) across a derelict railway bridge in Essex on a 400cc Yamaha.

Kidd's achievements culminated in 1993 when he jumped the Great Wall of China and beat Robbie Knievel, son of Evel Knievel, to the stunt bike world championship.

His life changed when he suffered serious head injuries in an accident at a motorcycle rally in Warwickshire in 1996.

The crash left him brain damaged with severely restricted co-ordination and speech but over the past seven years Kidd has fought to regain some of the mobility he lost.

His disabilities, however, have not diminished his zest for a challenge.

Kidd's wife, Sami, said she was not entirely surprised when he told her at Christmas he wanted to complete the London Marathon.

But she did not realise the challenge would be this tough on both of them.

Kidd, who lives in Seaford, East Sussex, has been walking up to a mile a day using a specially designed frame in aid of the charity Children with Cancer UK.

He started with the competitors on 17 April and has been aided by a team of carers, his wife and the public along the way.

Speaking before her husband crossed the finishing line on Monday evening, Mrs Kidd said: "It's been harder than we thought. It's been a real hard challenge, really tough. It's put him through so much.

"He's been exhausted and frustrated and made up his own swear words because he's run out of the normal ones to use.

"This has been the toughest challenge ever. He says it's his greatest feat.

The Marathon _52669159_eddie1
Eddie Kidd has been aided by a team of carers during his challenge

"He trained on Brighton beach but he didn't train on lumpy roads with distractions and noisy traffic. So he spent the first month [of the marathon] retraining."

Mrs Kidd said people with disabilities and medical problems had joined her husband as he walked the 26.2-mile (42.2km) route.

"The public have been out of this world. It's been overwhelming and emotional. Each person that walked with us had a story to tell.

"They said that he's given them a fresh lease of life," she added.

She had particular praise for people who came out to support him in Bermondsey and Rotherhithe.

"They brought him a new rucksack. They've been doing our dirty washing. They had nothing and they were giving £10 and £20. In the City they just gave pennies.

"I just wanted to say thank you to the people in Bermondsey and Rotherhithe. We'll never forget you as long as we live."

Kidd took part in one of Sir Ian Botham's charity walks in the 1980s and the cricketing great returned his support on the marathon route last month.

The ex-stuntman has also been joined by film star Ray Winston, comics Bobby Davro and Joe Pasquale, and Madness frontman Suggs during the marathon.

'Tears have flowed'

Former boxer Michael Watson presented Kidd with his finisher's medal on Monday evening.


The Marathon _53275799_kidd2
Mr Kidd was doused in champagne by well-wishers when he crossed the finishing line on Monday

Watson, who was in a coma for 40 days after a fight with Chris Eubank in 1991, completed the marathon in seven days in 2003.

Mrs Kidd added: "It's been hell for me. The tears have flowed.

"He had a bit of a lull at the beginning of the week and we were worried that he wouldn't make it but he's stormed it.

"Yesterday he did up to two miles.

"I've been crying all morning. I think it's because it's the last day and I've been keeping it all in. Bring on the champagne."

BBC News
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Post  eddie Sun Apr 22, 2012 3:10 am

The Marathon Modern-Toss-001
Modern Toss

Tomorrow: the London Marathon.
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Post  eddie Sun Apr 22, 2012 3:13 am

^

The blinded police officer PC David Rathband, referred to in the first post on this thread, has subsequently taken his own life. Sad
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Post  Guest Sun Apr 22, 2012 10:25 am

Sad

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Post  eddie Mon Apr 23, 2012 7:02 pm

Woman dies running London Marathon

Press Association

The Marathon UKNews220420122140401-1
Thousands of runners are pounding the streets in the Virgin London Marathon

A 30-year-old woman collapsed and died while running in the London Marathon, organisers have said.

She collapsed at Birdcage Walk, near St James's Park, on the final stretch of the 26.2 mile course, a statement on the marathon's official website confirmed.

The woman was given medical attention at the scene but died on Sunday afternoon, organisers said.

The fatality occurred with the finishing line only one bend away. Birdcage Walk borders St James's Park and is the last road that runners have to travel before reaching Buckingham Palace where they turn onto The Mall on which the finish line is located.

The death was the tenth since the London Marathon began in 1981. Five of the previous fatalities were a result of heart disease in runners apparently unaware that they had a problem. Four of these were cases of severe coronary heart disease.

Prince Harry was among the cheering crowds as tens of thousands of fun runners and amateur athletes completed the 32nd London Marathon. Up to 37,500 runners set off through the streets of the capital to earn their medals and raise money for countless charities.

Runners were given a Royal welcome as the Prince offered support to those crossing the finish line. He joked that the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge planned to run the 26.2 mile course next year, as he met volunteers and presented prizes to the winning athletes.

In the elite races, the event was dominated by the Kenyans, with Wilson Kipsang winning the men's race at his first attempt with a time of two hours four minutes and 44 seconds. Compatriot Mary Keitany retained her London Marathon title with a time of two hours 18 minutes and 36 seconds, setting a new national record in the process.

A host of famous faces also took part in this year's run in support of good causes. The fastest female celebrity was model Nell McAndrew, who broke down in tears after breaking the three hour mark, finishing with six minutes to spare. Rower James Cracknell was the only other celebrity to finish in less than three hours, crossing the line in two hours 59 minutes having recently recovered from a life-threatening head injury.

Newsreader Sophie Raworth, who collapsed at the 23-mile mark in 2011, banished the memories of last year's marathon to finish the race in three hours 56 minutes. Shadow Chancellor Ed Balls clocked a time of five hours and 33 minutes and revealed he would be celebrating with a well earned bitter.
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