Every year the London Marathon conjures up stories that could only happen at an event of this kind in a major city.
This year we’ve already seen a number of inspirational stories, such as the two women running in their underwear to raise money for mental health charities and promote body positivity.
Plus, the story of the female trailblazer who has campaigned for women’s rights to compete in marathons since the 1960s, who ran this year’s ran aged 71.
Maybe the oddest marathon-related story that we’ve seen so far has to be that of Rob Pope, who completed this year’s race dressed as the film character Forrest Gump, famously played by Tom Hanks.
Not only did Rob, who is originally from Liverpool, run the race – he broke a world record for the fastest time anyone has ever run the race dressed as a film character, crossing the finish line at 2 hours 36 mins.
Rob Pope, #LondonMarathon‘s own Forrest Gump just finished in 2 hours 36 mins! Officially Fastest film star costume! pic.twitter.com/G4hDysaoy2
— JustGiving (@JustGiving) April 22, 2018
By now, you’ve probably realized that Rob wasn’t just a random person in fancy dress but an accomplished runner who has embarked on the epic feat of recreating Forrest Gump’s run across America as seen in the 1994 film. After being inspired by the Oscar-winning flick, Rob mapped out the route that Forrest took on his run across the States, which totaled at 15,348 miles, which is the equivalent of 590 marathons. Needless to say, that is a long, long way, but remarkably he completed his journey in 409 days, all the while raising money for the World Wildlife Fund and Peace Direct Charities.
15,000 miles. 2500 x height of #Everest, a 15th of the way to the #moon, 4 x as long as the #Amazon and #GreatWall of China, 5.5 x the distance from #LA to #NYC…or…this run, consisting of 400 days of rubber on tarmac. 37.5 miles a day.#goingthedistance.@wwf_uk @peacedirect pic.twitter.com/khWA5bwwQv — Robert Pope (@runroblarun) March 6, 2018
Did you manage to spot Forrest Gump at the #LondonMarathon 2018? @runroblarun has been raising money for @peacedirect and @WWF and today he broke a world record too! Finishing up his epic run across the US next week- he needs all the support he can get: https://t.co/R3Fs5ogleE pic.twitter.com/eno7QW91nP
— Peace Direct (@peacedirect) April 22, 2018
Rob isn’t finished there though. Despite running more than the distance between the North and South Pole, he has also begun the fifth leg of his journey, meaning the London Marathon must have felt like a short jog in the park for him. Follow Rob’s progress and donate to his causes through his website Going The Distance Run. Good luck Rob on all your future runs. Rob’s wasn’t the only story from the marathon that caught our eye, raised a smile and warmed our hearts from this year’s marathon, which incidentally was the hottest on record. So here is a selection of other moments that we found on Twitter starting with this boy’s adorable sign for his Dad.
I asked my son to make a poster for me to wave at his dad on the #LondonMarathon route today. This was his effort. #runfasterdaddy pic.twitter.com/yyZNt0SEc5
— Carolyn Churchill (@ChurchillHT) April 22, 2018
Source: indy100
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