Guess the final marathon (world record setting!?) time and WIN!

Guess how long it will take me to run the whole London marathon in fancy dress and you can win one of these prizes:

1st prize: £100 Waitrose vouchers

2nd prize: £50 Marks & Spencers vouchers

3rd prize: £25 Amazon voucher

Just include in your sponsorship message how long you think it will take me to finish (HH: MM: SS - Hours, Minutes, Seconds) and if you are the closest then you win your choice of prizes! We will be using official chip timings, and to give you a ball park figure, I've never run under 3:30:00 and I have to finish in under 4:30:00 ... Judges decision is final ! If you have already sponsored me, please just email me at owenarthurs2@gmail.com with your guess and it will all be included in the final reckoning .. Good luck !!

What and Why :

OK, so in the year I turn 40, I decided to give myself a marathon challenge with a twist -

1. to run the London Marathon on Sunday 24 April in under 4 hours ...

(I ran it in 3:53 in 2014, and I've done 2 further marathons, so I should manage that at least )

2. to raise over £2000 for Whizz Kidz along the way ...

(it's you that can help with that bit !)

3. ... but this time to do it in fancy dress: wearing full academic garb, including a graduation gown (see  photo!) ... because ...

4 ... I'm going to try to set a new World Record for "fastest marathon in a graduation gown (male)".

5 ... and along the way in training, to run the Adidas Silverstone 2016 Half Marathon in mid-March (where the Guinness WR people suggest you road-test your costume!) ...

6 ... where I'm also going to try to break the World Record for "fastest half-marathon in a graduation gown (male)".  Record currently stands at 1hr57 I think !!

So the plan is to raise as much money as I can in both events, helped by the publicity generated by attempting world records, and if I come away with one or either world record in the process then so much the better.

So if you see me out and about running in a gown in Cambridge (ok so I might not look too out of place...!) then give me a beep and help sponsor my runs here !

Thank you in advance to everyone who sponsors me. Thank you in particular to Victoria and Andrew Thompson from Queens' College Cambridge who have loaned me the gown (although I don't think they will want it back given what it's now going to be used for) ... and to Susan Andrews for the mortar board from Wooton's dressing up cupboard !

Whizz Kidz have suggested donating through Just Giving. Donating through JustGiving is simple, fast and totally secure. Your details are safe with JustGiving – they’ll never sell them on or send unwanted emails. Once you donate, they’ll send your  money directly to the charity. So it’s the most efficient way to donate – saving time and cutting costs for the charity.