Completing a marathon would surely be a tall order for most of us, but so confident was Maidstone, Kent based Lukas Bates of his athletic abilities that he decided to complete last weekends London Marathon in a Big Ben costume. In what may have ‘seemed like a good idea at the time’ he was attempting to break the rather niche sounding Guinness World Record Marathon time for an individual wearing a landmark based costume (world records are getting pretty niche nowadays!!).
Suffice to say he had some troubles along the way, in part due to the wind picking up. This was much to the delight or alarm of anyone in the vicinity with a camera phone, or indeed eyes. Not one to let the elements get in his way though, Bates pushed on, and although not quite on course to break the record he was set to be a good showing.
Unfortunately, in one final cruel twist of fate, his costume turned out to be slightly too tall to get over the finish line. This resulted in help being required to angle the outfit in such a way that the plucky athlete could actually finish the race. ‘This’ aspect become pretty much the story of his participation, making onto news websityes around the world, but at least it made the nation smile. Maybe next year I’ll enter wearing an especially tall hat and see if I too can experience 15 minutes of Internet fame!
