Last year Pete Hodgetts and myself raised £7000 for Wellchild and Dreams Come True by taking part in 5 marathons across the world, finishing with the incomparable London Marathon. Neither of us was (or is!!) at all athletic and for the most part I walked the marathons, although Pete was into running by the time we finished. We did it to mark the closing of Sion Hill Middle School and much of the money was raised by the school community.

So what next? Well Sion Hill has now closed and I became Head of the new St John's CE Primary School in Kidderminster in September, 2007.So I have decided to repeat the exercise, literally, with 4 different world marathons, but again finishing in London, making 5 in total, supported by the St John's School community. Again hoping to lose at least another stone in weight! Dreams Come True will be the sole benefiting charity this time and some of the money raised will actually help a child in Worcestershire.

1.Reykjavik Marathon, Iceland - 18th August, 2007. Completed in 6h 44m 41s. I had been injured and done little training for this one so was very pleased to finish. A small marathon , with only 500 entrants in the actual marathon. Beautiful scenery but poor crowd support. I am grateful to Marshall from the USA who got me through those last few miles!!

1a Oslo Half Marathon , Norway - 30th September, 2007- As there is a time limit of 6 hours on the Munich Marathon, it is highly unlikely that I will be allowed to finish.  When I planned the marathons this one was always going to be a struggle and depended on me being able to do a lot of hard training, which, through injury, a bad cold and work has not happened. I shall do my best in Munich but getting halfway round may be all I am allowed to do. Which is why I added the Oslo Half Marathon, which I completed in 3h 09m 01s on a wet and not very interesting course!! Again this was achieved with little or no training and with a bad cold

2. Munich Marathon, Germany - 14th October, 2007. On a cold but sunny,  Autumn Sunday I completed half the Munich Marathon in a time of 3h 03 m 32 s This beats my Oslo time by 5 minutes. I probably could have continued further, but would not have made the finish in time and with the Athens Classic Marathon coming up in 3 weeks time I decided to be sensible and stop once I had crossed the half-marathon timing mat! Sadly no medal this time!!

3. Athens Classic Marathon, Greece - 4th November, 2007 - The Athens Classic Marathon, starting from Marathon and finishing in the Olympic Stadium, Athens. This was the course Paula Radclffe failed to complete at the 2004 Olympics!! As a walker I was allowed to start 2 hours before the runners and so finished this very hilly course in 6hours 28minutes 58 seconds -  my personal best time for a marathon! A memorable experience with a fantastic finish in the 1896 Olympic Stadium.

3a Calvia Half  Marathon, Majorca - 16th December, 2007  - It's rather a long time until Rome in March, so I have added this half-marathon!. Quite a hilly course this one and lonely too as I was the only walker. Completed in 3hours 03 minutes 40seconds.

3b Marrakech Half Marathon - 27th January, 2008.This may only have been a half marathon but it turned out to be my toughest challenge yet.  There were no KM markers so you could not gauge how well you were doing or how far you had gone. I saw no water after 10KM and also after 10KM had to do battle with heavy traffic, hundreds of mopeds and pedestrians. To add to that you were breathing exhaust fumes all the time and there were no markings showing you where to go until the last kilometre. I had to ask the way on four occasions. It is a miracle I finished at all let alone in a time of 3hours 13 minutes 38 seconds.

4. Rome  Marathon- 16th, March, 2008. This was a very well organised race and took in most of Rome's major tourist sites. I have to say that I have not been training as regularly as I should for one reason or another and i really felt it!! About a third of the race is run over cobblestones and this certainly took its toll on my feet especially in the latter stages!! I finished in 6hours 49minutes and 47 seconds. I found this one really tough!!!

5. London - 13th April, 2008. The London Marathon is very special and crowd support was again fantastic despite the showery weather. Got soaked twice, at 5 miles and 15 miles so was rather cold for much of the race. I found it very tough at times but eventually made it in 6 hours 45 mins 01 second., 12 minutes slower than last year

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Many thanks for your support.

Gordon Wainwright

Please note that I pay all my own expenses