On Sunday 24 April 2016, GCT supporter Gordon Wanless ran the London Marathon to fulfil a personal ambition and to raise much-needed funds for the Ghanaian Children’s Trust. Here is Gordon’s account of his experience. Well done Gordon, and a huge “Thank You” from the Trustees as well as all the children we are helping in Ghana.
“Well I did it, not as quick as I wanted, but I finished in one piece, so to speak!
I took about 5 hours and 16 minutes to finish the course, but did so with a very sore Achilles’ tendon!
It was certainly the experience I expected it to be and the atmosphere and the crowd support were amazing. I had learned from running the Edinburgh Marathon back in 2014 that if you have your name on the front of your running top people will shout out your name which they certainly did and it was a very good help I can tell you.
I knew my Achilles’ tendon was going to be an issue as I had tweaked it during training. That had cost me about a month’s worth of training and that lost training really showed when I got to about the 15 to 16 mile mark as I had to start walking and running from that point onwards until mile 25 from where I ran in the final bit. Finishing in The Mall was something else, I can tell you!
In total I will have raised in the region of £1,500 with gift aid for The Ghanaian Children’s Trust which I think is a really good total, so I’d really like to thank all of my supporters – I really appreciate you! If you haven’t had the chance to sponsor me and would like to please let me have your donation or visit my fundraising page at https://mydonate.bt.com/fundraisers/gordonwanless
Oh and before you ask I will never, ever, be doing another marathon, they are just too hard for an old man like me!”
