Gladiators.... Ready....

And they were off ... less than a mile into the challenge two of our army had to attend to a call of nature. Barring this small interruption, the pace was set. With legions of Londoners out to support, the 'messengers of the gods' were spurred into action. Wombles, superheroes and even Masai tribesmen were defeated along the way.

Despite rain, swollen knees, hunger and Artoria's inane chatter our Roman army made it over the finish line in one piece. No records broken but each gladiator was rewarded with gold and great recognition from the team at Snowdon Award Scheme.

Many thanks - we had a fantastic time and hope our pot of Roman treasure means that more students can be supported by the Scheme next year.

Remember 'dum spiro spero' - while we breathe there is hope!

(Photos: Courtesy of MarathonFoto)

I ran for the Snowdon Award scheme back in 1993 when I was head of Investment at a Law firm. Having had a dangerous driver write the car off from behind, this was my way to rehabilitate myself. Then, I ended up being the target of stupid drivers again in 1996 with another road traffic accident. This proved more serious and disabled me from my job. Not only was I fairly disabled physically in some ways but I lost much of my memory and then had learning difficulties, so I began to study for a degree to rehabilitate myself! Physically, to run a marathon was my goal.

So I entered for the London 2008 Marathon and started training, but by the time I got to 14 miles in training I found that muscles in the upper legs weren’t functioning correctly and I was in a lot of pain. The physio’ felt that it was a defect dating back from the accident and I couldn’t train any more from that date which was 10 weeks before the event. I even had pain in walking just 250 yards on the Tuesday before the race. I retained my fitness well but I had no expectation of running the whole race, however if I could finish the race, even if it meant walking, then I would do this and my personal achievement would be immense.

Having been competitive my whole life this involved a major character/personality rethink - especially having expected to do it in a time of 3 ½ hrs initially! Eventually the day came. Much homeopathic medicine was taken successfully and I took my courage, and most importantly my Christian faith went with me to the start.

I ran for 9 miles until the agony really set-in again then prayed that someone would help And there he was at 13 miles, someone called John who walked with me for the remaining 13 miles whilst picking up other runners along the way who had given up.

What an amazing experience to realise that even if you are one of the tail-enders, you are a vital and valuable part of the whole event. Everyone is important in this world and I felt passionately that I was running/walking to help other people with disabilities who needed support; after all I’ve been disabled and I still am in some ways, but my motto in life is that nothing is impossible. People said it was madness to run the London Marathon given my predicament but sometimes you just know that something or someone is telling you to go on. I did finish and I won the battle to get there, plus I met some wonderful people along the way and the memories will be with me forever.

Thank you to the Snowdon Award Scheme for your support, care and for giving me the opportunity to fulfil this dream.