It was a London Marathon like no other, but South Holland runners stayed the course to raise money for various charities.
Only the world’s top elite athletes were in the capital on Sunday, while thousands of the individual, club and fun runners completed the distance in their own part of the world.
Teacher Frances Crampton and teaching assistant Louise Compton, both of St John the Baptist Church of England Primary School, Spalding, were among the competitors.
They ran together for part of the event, with Louise recording a time of 4:51 and Frances of 4:35.
Frances was running her first marathon and raised money for the charity Scope, in memory of her cousin Sophie Kendrick.
She raised £1,743 on her fundraising web page at justigiving.com
Louise ran her second marathon and raised £1,850 for the Junior Diabetes Research Foundation.
Her niece Faith Robinson (10) has the condition. Two friends also have young children who have been diagnosed.
She ran her first London Marathon last year.
“I am lucky enough to have been chosen again to run the London Marathon for this very worthy charity,” she said on her fundraising page.
“Running the marathon will be nothing compared to the ups and downs they have to endure daily,” she added.
Pupils at their school are currently taking part in a week of running to support both women in their fundraising efforts. They were encouraged to wear sporty clothes on Monday and each child in Key Stage 1 will run a mile over this week, while the children in KS2 will run 2.62 miles.
They will all receive a mini-London Marathon certificate on Friday to help celebrate their efforts.
Louise’s husband Sean, a fire service watch command support officer, ran for Blood Cancer UK and raised £2,500 for his charity.
The friends were also supporting David Brown, who works at The Phoenix Group and is raising money for Addenbrooke’s Hospital’s charity fund, Cambridge. He raised £3,100 on his fundraising page for the fund which is divided across Addenbrooke’s and the Rosie Hospital.
He ran a time of 5:18 while Sean finished his marathon distance in 5:30.
Three separate virtual London Marathon runners battled through the pain barrier to complete their 26.2 miles and raise thousands of pounds for charity.
It was only the day after finishing her run that Samantha Hall was told she’d got a suspected stress fracture in the foot.
Similarly Rob Green put in an amazing effort to complete the marathon distance on Sunday, despite having injured his hamstring playing football the previous Friday.
And Shaun Turner picked up an injury at 19 miles, but they all still completed the race.
For hairdresser Samantha it was the second time she’d ran the event, and despite her foot injury, she actually ran the distance quicker.
Back in April on the original intended date of the marathon she ran the distance on a treadmill on her drive.
She went four minutes quicker clocking 5hrs 33mins raising £3,365 for the Mental Health Foundation.
Despite the injury, she said: “It couldn’t have gone better really as there was a lot of support in Spalding and surrounding areas including cheers and beeps from passing cars.
“Family, friends and Halmer Harriers were out in support so I only ran one mile alone.”
Rob has run the marathon before raising money for Children With Cancer as at the time was the youngest person ever to have been diagnosed with bladder cancer.
Now 30 years old he found the marathon tough going without the cheer of the crowd in comparison with the 2018 event, especially after a hamstring injury sustained playing football on Friday.
The production assistant at George Adams Butchers raised £2,500 thanks to his 8hr 6mins which included a run to the ground where his Holbeach United U9s team play and back to Spalding.
The dad to Dylan (8) and Riley (9) said: “I wanted to do it this year as it’s my 30th year and 18 years of being cancer free.
“It was a bit of a comedown as I was in the best shape I’d ever been in April when the marathon was cancelled.
“After injuring myself on Friday I found it a lot more mentally draining and I thought I wasn’t going to do it at 23 miles.
“Huge thanks go to those who have supported me including Leon Doyne who
walked with me for about 15 miles.”
Shaun was also raising money for Children With Cancer.
The payroll manager for Manor Fresh had tried for ten years to get into the event, finally succeeding this year.
He took part in a series of laps around his own village of Sutton St James.
Shaun said: “It didn’t quite go to plan as I got an injury at 19 miles and had to walk the last seven miles.
“But I completed it in 5hrs 23 mins and raised nearly £1,500 for Children with Cancer.”
