Bere Alston Trekker Andy Cowden ran the London Marathon at the weekend representing the club via the club’s ballot place.

This was Andy’s second London Marathon having previously run for a charity in 2017.

At the Blue start for ballot runners on Blackheath Common the forecasted rain had duly arrived which meant a cool start to the race.

London is a running experience like no other, from the numbers of runners on the road to the sheer volume of people cheering you on along the route.

New this year was a pinch point at a deep puddle at a traffic island which brought runners to a halt as they filed slowly past to a very short section where the crowd had edged into the road giving the feel of a mountain climb in the Tour De France.

As well as the famous tourist sights along the way such as the Cutty Sark, Tower Bridge, the Tower of London, Big Ben and Buckingham Palace, as you finish on The Mall, Andy saw plenty of sights amongst the runners.

In no particular order, Andy overtook four different rhinos, a man running in a phone box, a man carrying a set of golf clubs in a golf bag, a man running in wooden clogs and the obligatory dinosaur.

By way of preparation for the race Andy ran in the Manchester Marathon the previous Sunday, supporting a fellow runner and finishing in a time of 5:33:15. Andy managed to knock almost an hour off that time finishing the London Marathon in 4:37:15.