Virgin Money London Marathon 2015

Congratulations and a huge “thank you” to the 132 runners who ran the 2015 Virgin Money London Marathon and the 2 mini marathon runners who ran for CRY on Sunday 26th April. As always, we are very proud of you all and very grateful to you for your fantastic efforts to raise awareness and funds for CRY.

Next year’s race date is Sunday 24th April. The public ballot is now closed but you can apply for a CRY place by visiting the CRunCH website. For more information please email [email protected]

The CRY team of 132 CRY London Marathon runners comprised of 47 who ran with their own ballot places and 86 with places acquired through CRY – including media and celebrity places. Among our runners were CRY Patrons, Bill Neely, Chief Global Correspondent for NBC who ran for CRY for the 6th consecutive year in memory of Katrina Brown and Ben Brown, BBC News Presenter who ran for the first time in memory of Claire Prosser and Tom Clabburn. Bill’s daughter, Sarah, also took part for CRY for the 2nd consecutive year.

We were also delighted to have CRY Patron Andy Scott’s wife Ruth taking part. Her training blog can be found here

Phillippa Hennessey, Editor of Darling Magazine, Cobham very kindly chose CRY as her charity to run for. Her training blog can be found here

Actor Joe Street and Evan Phillips, both Welsh International Australian Rules Football players started their marathon run in Swansea, leaving the Liberty Stadium on 11th April and finishing 240 miles away in London on 26th April by completing the London Marathon. Two of our runners, Laura and Adam got engaged at the finish line. Congratulations from all of us at CRY.

The weather was dull and very chilly all day this year, especially for spectators and cheerers, nevertheless, as always, there was an incredible atmosphere on the day.

At 8.30am, CRY staff Yassi Banietemad and Nat Jenkins and CRY volunteer Nigel Bennett headed to the start to meet the CRY runners at the Red and Blue start points and wish them all good luck. We also used this opportunity to start our social media coverage on the day and sent out regular tweets. Thank you to everyone who came to meet Nat, Yassi and Nigel.

CRY staff member Nicola Taylor went to the Green start to meet the runners with media and celebrity places and take their photos.

Meanwhile, as usual, the Blake Suite at the Hilton Hotel, Green Park was being prepared with refreshments and decorated with CRY banners, flags, balloons, bunting and displays. The room was set up by CRY staff Yassi Banietemad; Lesley Dallow; Ralph Knox; Cara MacMillan; Rosie Peploe; Ben Robinson; Nicola Taylor, Toby Ward, and Rebecca Zouvani, with assistance from CRY volunteers Martin Appleby; Phil Eastty; Barbara and Jim Holland; Danielle and Tracey West – who made the suite look very welcoming in preparation for our runners’ return.

This year, as last year, the Hilton Hotel, Green Park kindly donated an additional two suites – the Byron and the Darwin – and CRY volunteers Ian and Teija Wynn set up these rooms with massage beds so that CRY runners could have their post-race massage in a quiet, relaxing environment, away from the bustle of the main suite. We are extremely grateful to the Hilton Hotel for the use of these additional rooms. The Hilton Hotel also donated a further two bedrooms to be used for showers. This was much appreciated and helped ease the flow of runners.

Nat Jenkins, as well as volunteers and supporters Nicky Barnes; Nigel Bennett; Peter and Caroline Gard; Terry and Don Granner; Ann and Dorian Mead; Steph Metcalfe; Chris West and Wanda Wilson, as well as our runners’ friends and families, kindly took photographs and cheered for all of our runners at miles 18 and 23 and gave them the extra boost they needed to keep going.

Katy, Chris and Oliver Turberville; along with Graeme Attridge, Bob and Carol Finch and Abi Jonas – also CRY volunteers – waited in Waterloo Place, near the finish area, to welcome the CRY runners and offer them a seat, drink and snack whilst they waited for the CRY shuttle service to take them back to the Hilton Hotel.

The shuttle vehicles were driven by CRY staff members Ralph Knox and Ben Robinson. They were assisted by Oliver Turberville who escorted our tired runners from the finish area and whisked them back to the hotel in the minibus shuttles, where many CRY staff, volunteers and supporters were waiting to thank and congratulate them. Volunteers Danielle and Tracey West greeted each of our runners outside the hotel, took their photograph and welcomed them to our reception. The Hilton Hotel kindly provided hand towels for our runners as they entered the building – another generous gesture.

The first CRY runner to cross the finish line was Ian Crampton MBE who finished in a fantastic 02:36:08 and the first CRY runner back to the hotel was Keith Preedy who finished in an equally impressive time of 02:58:30.

As the afternoon progressed, more and more runners came back to the hotel, each receiving a well deserved round of applause from CRY staff and volunteers, before they were photographed, interviewed and given a much appreciated leg massage before heading for a relaxing, warm shower. The main reception room was, after a while, full of exhausted, emotional and elated runners and their proud friends and family members sharing the highs and lows of the day. They were able to meet and chat to Alison Cox, CRY Founder and CEO, who was available for most of the afternoon and enjoyed meeting everyone and thanking them for their extraordinary efforts.

After being checked-in by volunteers Barbara and Jim Holland (who kept things running smoothly) each runner was offered a seat and a drink by CRY staff. They were then interviewed by CRY staff member Lily Burke, Lesley Dallow, and former CRY staff member, now a volunteer, Becci Upson. After this, runners were taken to the massage suites where the therapists helped to relieve their aching muscles.

The massage areas were supervised by volunteers Jenny Boag and Teresa Taylor who did a wonderful job of accompanying the runners and ensuring that they were not interrupted whilst they were having their massage.

A huge “thank you” to our volunteer massage therapists, Jocelyn de Guzman, Daniel Doyle, Tillie Howard, Carl James, Leonie Lawson, David Piddington, Christine Ravine, Josh Wagner and Ian and Teija Wynn, whose skills were greatly needed and much appreciated by all the CRY runners who came back to the hotel .

After their therapeutic and soothing massage, CRY volunteer Phil Eastty and CRY staff member Rosie Peploe showed the runners to the hotel bedrooms which had been reserved for showers. Everyone seemed more relaxed and fresher after a hot shower and change of clothes! Phil and Rosie handed out CRY goody bags to the runners when they returned from their showers, as a small token of appreciation from CRY.

Thank you so much to the 68 runners and their supporters who came back to the hotel to meet us, despite feeling emotionally and physically exhausted; and thank you also to all of our volunteers.
As always, it was a challenging day for everyone, and especially difficult for those who were running in memory of somebody. It was great to meet so many of our runners’ friends, family members and supporters too, some for the first time.

We are grateful to everyone who has sent in photographs from the day. If you haven’t already done so, please do send any you have to [email protected] – we will include as many as possible on CRY’s Flickr account in the coming weeks.

CRY staff members Nat Jenkins and Toby Ward and volunteers Terry and Don Granner, Pete and Sue Robinson, Chris, Danielle and Tracey West did a wonderful job of taking photos of CRY runners on the course, at the cheering points, at the Grandstand and back at the hotel. Nat tweeted photos and information about CRY runners throughout the day.

Thank you to the Hilton Hotel, Green Park, for once again hosting our post-event facilities; providing dedicated staff to assist with any queries; offering CRY runners and supporters discount vouchers for food and drink at the bar; and providing many extra facilities for CRY free of charge, including the hand towels at the reception area and, most generously, the two suites which we used for the massage facilities and the two additional bedrooms for showers. This was much appreciated.
Once again, we would like to thank each and every runner for their huge efforts in completing the marathon and fundraising for CRY. Your time, effort and valued support are truly appreciated. Well done!

The CRY Team

This is a selection of photos from the day. If you would like to view all of the photos, they are available on our London Marathon 2015 Flickr gallery

CRY runners in the 2015 London Marathon were:

As well as people taking part in the full marathon, we had two teenagers Saul and Juliette Westbrook taking part in the mini marathon. Saul’s time in the U15 boys race was 00:20:30 and Juliette’s time in the U17 girls race, her sixth and last mini marathon, was 00:25:31. They were taking part in the Brent Team for the Claire Prosser and Tom Clabburn Fund at CRY. We were delighted that Saul and his father Ian were able to come and meet us at the Hilton Hotel.

CRY Patron Ben Brown: “It was a huge thrill to run my first London marathon – and to do it for CRY. The first half seemed surprisingly easy – then reality kicked in and I slowed down until I had to stop briefly for cramp near the parliament square. The crowds were amazing and took my breath away – there were lots of people from CRY cheering me on along the way, so a huge thank you to all of them. All in all I was very pleased to finish at 3.58 and to have raised some more funds for CRY. But most important to me was run in memory of Tom Clabburn and his mother Claire, who was a passionate supporter of CRY and worked tirelessly on it’s behalf.”

CRY Patron Bill Neely: “I am feeling relieved and wrecked. I have done six now and this was definitely the most difficult. Miles 21-24 were very tough. The London Marathon will always find you out. There is a proper correlation between the work you put into preparing for it and how you do on the day. My preparation wasn’t bad but less than I’d wanted – I lost three weeks through travel. My day was a brutal illustration of that! But yes – I would like to do it again!”

Ruth Scott, wife of CRY Patron Andy Scott: “Running the marathon was painful but the most amazing experience, and I would recommend it to anyone! Being part of the CRY team only made it extra special for me. Thank you to everyone at CRY for their wonderful organisation and support.”