Okay so that claim may not survive in depth scrutiny from the Guinness World of Records, but it’s certainly going to be a much smaller event than the London Marathon.
When? – 5th November 2011, 09:00 am
Where? Starting & finishing at Kingston Gate car park, Richmond Park, and taking in Bushy Park, Home Park, Wimbledon Common & the riverbank on its way.
Details:- http://parakeet-marathon.blogspot.com/
Route map:- http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=5071510
I’ve thought about running a marathon for years now, but put it off mainly because of the training time required. Finally, with official sanction of the Boss at home and the right encouragement I have committed myself to do it. But I knew my chances of getting in to the official London Marathon were slim, what with me not runniing any races etc, so I decided to act on a pipedream I have had for a while and design my own marathon route, taking in all the beautiful parks we have round here. So an alternative name is the South West London Green Spaces Marathon.
I didn’t want to get bogged down in officialdom, so my marathon is a strictly unofficial event, running through spaces that are open to the public. And I took care to make sure that any road crossing involved is as safe as possible. And I’ve tried to route it past water fountains and toilets wherever I can. And I’ve included several places along the way where supporters can park and wait and hopefully operate a drinks station or two. Then I decided I might as well publicise my route to enable any other like-minded souls to run it too. So the route is out there, a detailed description is on my we page, more details and photos of the route will be added as soon as I can.
Quite a few people from the club have said they would like to get involved in the event with me, some running part of the distance, others the entire route. It isn’t a race as such (although I intend to provide finishing times for participants if I can), it’s more about enjoying the great outdoors, even here in greater London. There’s less than 3 miles, all told, which has to be run along public roads, so most of the time it’s away from traffic. Why not get involved yourself? Or set yourself a challenge to run it in your own time at some later date?
Speak to me at the Club or send me an e-mail via this website.
Howard Brinkworth