One of our “more mature” Exmouth Harriers members ran in the Royal Parks Half Marathon in London last Sunday with his daughter and enjoyed a brilliant day

Taking in the sights and sounds of a delightful route, John Goss-Custard and Grace ran the course with charity in mind, raising funds for the British Heart Foundation to help support their crucial work.

“I ran the Royal Parks Half marathon last Sunday October 10th with my 30 year old daughter Grace to ‘celebrate’ my fast-approaching 80th in May next year,” said John.

“Having both had 'heart issues', we raised money for the British Heart Foundation. Thanks to our very generous sponsors, we have so far raised about £2,000 on our just-giving website: https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/grace-and-john-goss-custard.

“It is a terrific route that takes you through much of historic London and Green, Hyde and St James Parks and Kensington Gardens, almost completely flat apart from a few gentle downhills towards the end. With about 15,000 runners, the atmosphere was great, especially in the many places where there were lots of supporters alongside. I really recommend it.

“The photos show some of our favourite moments from the day: passing Westminster Abbey early in the run; ‘sprinting’ to the finishing line and showing off our nice wooden medals.

“As for time, 2 hours 37 minutes. I had to work pretty hard, as you can see from the photos. Grace did a great job holding herself back and encouraging her old dad along.

“Of course, you do slow down as you age! So I was curious to find out how our time on Sunday compared with my PB of 104 minutes from many years ago.

“From the data given in the website https://runninglevel.com/running-times/half-marathon-times#.YWRJoK4f3bA.mailto, I found that the average half-marathon male runner of intermediate standard at the age of 79.5 years takes 1.50942 times longer to run a half-marathon than does a man of 40. By dividing Sunday’s 157 minutes by 1.50942, I got the age-adjusted time of ……104 minutes!

“So, not a lot of progress really over the last several decades but a lot of fun, which is the main thing!”

Exmouth Journal: John and Grace enjoy their medalsJohn and Grace enjoy their medals (Image: Exmouth Harriers)

Exmouth Journal: Crossing the finishing lineCrossing the finishing line (Image: Exmouth Harriers)