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Daily Mirror
Daily Mirror
Sport
Sam Elliott

London Marathon 2019: World record time set for running in costume

Kate Carter has set a new world record for running a marathon in a costume - and celebrated by doing some work!

The Guardian writer has so far raised over £1,300 for animal charity WWF dressed as a panda and smashed the record time by 25 minutes.

Her fantastic efforts also saw her receive a tweet of congratulations from Marathon legend Paula Radcliffe.

Ever the professional, the first thing she did after crossing the finishing line was to file some copy - writing on the newspaper's website about her incredible day.

She did it in just under 3 hours 50 minutes - enough to take a place in the record books.

(@@GWR/Twitter)

Hayley Carruthers collapses on the finishing line of the London Marathon 2019  

"Truly, days don’t get much better than this," she wrote.

"There were also a lot of calls of “Go Pandaboy!” or “Go panda man!” Mind you, the difficulty of correctly identifying a panda's gender may explain a lot about their mating habits.

"The last few miles of a marathon are usually a painful slog, but this time they were the easiest. Running in costume is like being one of the stars of the show – everyone is willing you on.

"I even did a bit of showboating, high-fiving kids and blowing kisses to the crowd, before finally crossing the line, to be greeted by the Guinness team who told me that my time of 3:48:32 had broken the old record for the title of fastest marathon in a full body costume (female) by 25 minutes.

"With that I finally removed my panda head – to breathe in the blissful cool air and return to my normal human self. This, though, was a magical day that I won’t forget in a hurry.

Earlier, Mo Farah apologised for stealing the limelight away from the London Marathon - but insisted he had told only the truth.

Eliud Kipchoge put on the greatest show in race history to win his fourth title and leave the Briton more than three minutes behind him in fifth place.

But the brilliant Kenyan’s achievement was overshadowed by the escalating row between Farah and fellow athletics legend Haile Gebrselassie.

“What I said is the honest truth,” said Farah, who could not live with the blistering pace set by Kipchoge in winning in two hours two minutes 38 seconds.

“But at the same time it is all about the London Marathon and I didn’t mean to take any limelight away from the sport or anything like that.”

You can donate to Kate's cause here as she attempts to raise even more money

https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/lovethepandas

   
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