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Runner ends marathon, a week later
Runner ends marathon, a week later
Tuesday May 01, 2007
"Slow motion" marathon runner Greg Billingham finished the London Marathon on Sunday -- one week after the event itself started.
Billingham, 39, decided to "run" the 26-mile event at an ultra-slow pace of three miles (4.8 kilometres) every ten hours, to raise money for the charity Children with Leukaemia, because people who become ill often find their lives slow down.
"At first people look at you strangely," the Briton, who hopes to have raised between 30,000 and 40,000 pounds for the charity, said after he crossed the finish line.
"People weren't too sure whether it was a joke."
Billingham, who had never before run a marathon, developed his technique of lifting each leg in the air for several seconds at a time during his training, which involved moving very slowly on a treadmill, and running slowly in a farmer's field "where nobody could see me".
"When I turned up in London, I had a tenner (a 10-pound note) and a sleeping bag," the building developer said.
"The more I did, the better I was getting at it. The word got round around London."
For now, though, Billingham is finding it hard to shake off his success -- he said that when "people waved at me I would look at them in slow motion".
"I'm still adapting to it."
AFP
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