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Marathon, Marathon
November 02, 2003
Dave Coles, Alan Mann, and Graeme Donnan have travelled to the US for the New York City Marathon. They will line up against Sammy Korir (the second-fastest marathon runner ever), P Diddy, and Sir Ranulph Fiennes.
P Diddy has tendonitis, Sir Ranulph has run six marathons on six continents over the past six days (and, for those who believe in such things, Iain Duncan Smith was Tory party leader for 777 days), and Sammy Korrir lost out to Paul Tergat in Berlin a mere five weeks ago, and has “‘yo-yoed’ on and off the start list.”
Paula Radcliffe was allegedly offered £500,000 but turned it down to concentrate on training for next year’s Olympics, leaving the race open to Catherine Ndereba. US hopes will be on the legally-blind Marla Runyan.
Posted by Dave at November 2, 2003 01:03 PM
I was impressed that P Diddy called his charity-raising effort
Diddy Runs The City and then asked the mayor for a personal donation. That took balls and a sense of humour. (I could have lived without the music track on his extremely slow-loading and unfinished site though.) Link found through
Anil Dash.
Ranulph Fiennes describes marathons as “
good fun”.
BTW, I can’t find Sammy Korir even among the leaders at 10K, so I assume that he didn’t start.
Have found Graeme and Alan but no Dave, presume he ran unless P Diddy preformed a drive-by during the race ;-)
Matt,
I hope you're not suggesting that 'Mr Diddy' is in any way connected with dangerous activities of a criminal nature. This, of course, would be both slanderous and potentially life threatening. I presume you mean he took Dave for a pre-race breakfast at a drive in diner.
Does anybody have any further news on Mr Coles??
I'm e-mailing from the centre of New York on the day after the race - to tell you that we are alive and well, Graeme twisted his ankle, and really had a rough day, Alan did fine in 3.27 as reported, and Dave finished in 3.05, with the chip not recording the time, but he carried the Welsh flag all the way, including crossing the line, sothere may be some decent photos! He had reported it when collecting the chip, but the organisers said it would work, but it didn't! Anyway, it was AWESOME, the crowds sensational and it was very hot for November.
Hi Matt
I assume the comment above was Dave Coles again. He sent a longer version to Matt:
Been a lot of confusion with results, but Alan and Graeme did 3.27 and 4.08 resp., and I did 3.05, but it hasn’t registered as the chip wasn’t working. I told them the day before but they assured me it would work, but it didn’t! Anyway it was superb, crowds amazing, first half 1.27, then bit of a nightmare last 8 miles, severe stiffness setting in, and the jet lag and all the hanging around queuing for buses to Staten Island, etc, did nothing to help. Anyway I was around 610th out of 33000, so it went fine really. We went to Statue of Liberty and Ground Zero today. Catch you on Thursday.
P Diddy seems to have beaten Joe Strummer’s only known time of 4:30, although Strummer both claimed that he trained and abstained before a race and that he never trained and drank ten pints before the
Paris Marathon (third hit for the word ‘marathon’ — where he also explains the differences between Clinton and Bush and demonstrates what a good guy he was).
So far, the pictures I’ve seen on the web are lousy, but there are
first hand accounts up already.
Hi folks
I'm still in New York (New Jersey actually) recovering from a wrecked ankle. What a plonker; I hardly ran two miles, stepped on a plastic bottle, turned my foot over (ouch!) and hobbled for the next four hours. Consequently I haven't been able to even walk for the last two days. Anyway, the atmosphere and support was tremendous, such noise, all the way around. A lot of hanging about at the start, but I suppose that is normal for a big city marathon.
I spent four hours wondering who this "Diddy" chap is who was receiving so much support. Anyway, well done Mr Diddy; he raised an enormous amount for charity.
I can't find Dave on the results either. There is a "Cole, D" at 3:07:26, but presumably that's someone else.
Well done for toughing it out Graeme. I hope you haven't done anything too serious to your ankle. Time to hit the ice packs and ibuprofen.
