Unless you squirreled yourself away in Vauxhall over the weekend or avoided all mainstream media, you can’t have failed to notice that on Sunday more than 37,000 people of all shapes, sizes, age and persuasion gathered in Greenwich Park and subjected themselves to one of the most gruelling challenges a person can undertake.
We are talking, of course, about the London Marathon, a 26.2 mile run, walk or crawl past the capital’s most iconic landmarks to the cheers of literally hundreds of thousands of supporters and well-wishers.
Taking part for the third time was G-A-Y’s very own Jeremy Joseph who, along with celebrity model Calum Best was running as part of his continued fund raising efforts for the Elton John AIDS Foundation. As we mentioned in last week’s QX, Jeremy was more nervous this year than any other as niggling injuries had plagued his winter training, and come 8.30am on race day he was nervously pacing the Green ‘celeb’ enclosure as we hunted for photo ops with other celebs who had rashly agreed to run.
The TOWIE crew were filming a couple of scenes as James ‘Arg’ Argent was running, Will Young ran for the second time, chefs Michel Roux Jnr and Gordon ‘F*@!’ Ramsey were on the start line as were Linda Barker, Jenni Falconer, Nadia Sawalha and European and Commonwealth champion Iwan Thomas.
Sadly, there was one fatality on the course when a 30 year old woman collapsed and died on Birdcage Walk just a couple of hundred metres from the finish line.
There were many inspirational and moving stories as daughters ran for their mothers with terminal cancer, fathers ran in the name of their ill children and even one courageous woman, Claire Lomas, who after being left paralysed from the chest down following a horse riding accident, is the first person to take on the London Marathon in a bionic ‘ReWalk’ suit. At an average of 1.5 miles a day, the challenge is expected to take Claire several weeks to complete, and watching her take her first faltering steps over the start line was one of the most moving sights of the day and brought a tear to many onlookers eyes.
In the elite race it was the Kenyan’s day again as Wilson Kipsang took the men’s title, and Mary Keitany the women’s and in the mass ‘Red’ race the 37,000 fairies, superheroes, rhinos, Smurfs and a multitude of other characters (as well as a fair few hotties in tight shorts!) made the most of the glorious blue sky and sunshine.
Having followed Jeremy on the course every year, we were once again impressed by his focused pace and performance as his 5k splits consistently came in around the 30 minute mark with practically no faltering or fluctuations despite being in pain for almost the whole race.
His HIV awareness balloon releases went off without hitch at the seven allotted locations. These were at Greenwich Park (Big Al and the Popcorn crew), the Cutty Sark (G-A-Y Porn Idol judges), Tower Bridge (G-A-Y security team), Canary Wharf (QX Editor Cliff Joannou and former G-A-Y employee Shane Valentine), the White Swan (G-A-Y flyer boys), Big Ben (G-A-Y managers), with Jeremy himself releasing the final bunch as he crossed the finish line and collected his medal looking remarkable fresh and ready to do it all again. A truly remarkable achievement both from Jeremy as well as all the G-A-Y staff and customers who support his events all year round.
• A message from Jeremy:
“Although the London Marathon has finished, G-A-Y’s commitment to Elton John AIDS Foundation hasn’t and the new G-A-Y target is a staggering £250,000. G-A-Y is 20 years old this year and while the number of people living with HIV increases, then so does their commitment and raising a quarter of a million pounds is their way of giving something back. If you would like to help in this monumental community goal you can donate either at www.justgiving.com/G-A-Y or by texting EJAF69 £2 to 70070. You can change the amount to £1, £3, £5 or £10.”
• Words and photos by Chris Jepson
• Additional photos: nicophoto.co.uk
