Results tagged “running”

Considering it's 26.2 miles long and will have 35,000 people pounding along it, it's going to be hard not to fall across the marathon tomorrow. But the secret to having an enjoyable marathon spectator experience is to avoid the ultra-crowded bits, and work out how you're going to see your mate who's running (it's trickier than it looks - spotting a man in a vest amongst 35,000 people can be challenging). You need A Plan.

     

Or, Dear Martin Creed: I didn’t really want to run in your exhibition anyway

The capital has of course always boasted a world-beating marathon course, and earlier this year we acquired our very own dedicated 10k. So it makes sense that we get a half-marathon too.

Awaking from our reverie, however, we clock that it really is vaguely serious. Organised in three sections, the youth category (aged 13-16) will have a 100m swim, that's 2 lengths of the 50m pool, followed by a 1000m run. Novice adult competitors will have to swim 200m and run 2000m, and the more experienced will have a 400m swim and 7000m run. It's only £3.50 to enter as an adult so if you can get there and are able it would be churlish not to. The aim of the day is "to gauge the level of interest for multi sport in the local community, with the goal of establishing a local triathlon club based out of Brockwell Lido".

After a highly public breakup back in December (“it’s not you, it’s us” was Flora’s graceless exit strategy), the London Marathon has been wandering adrift, at sea, not quite sure what the future would bring after the 2009 race. No worries – she’s a hot little lucrative number and we knew it wouldn’t be long before someone swooped in to occupy the vacant space by her side.

Now, having completed the London Marathon in just under ten hours - and collecting some £20,000 for the Rhys Daniels Trust in the process - Buster was expected to be entered into the Guinness Book of Records as the race's oldest participant. But those dour folk at Guinness World Records have stuck a running spike into proceedings: they claim that, without a genuine birth certificate, Buster's claim is null and void.

Kate Percy is a marathon runner and a cook … and, as of the 10th of January, a blogger. With her Go Faster Food blog, Kate intends to share her progress in training for the Flora London Marathon 2008 and to talk about different foods and recipes which she finds helpful to her training.

The three-time London Marathon winner has been forced to withdraw from this year’s event due to an injury to a tendon in her toe (tendons! in the toe! yet another area of the body we’ve been neglecting to exercise all these years?). Despite the setback, Radcliffe is downplaying the seriousness of the injury, sustained during altitude training in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and maintains that this should in no way hamper her pursuit of the gold medal in Beijing this summer.

If you've not got plans tonight, then we're very excited by new-ish club night Now We've Got Europe.

Witness Buster Martin, the 101-year-old with an invincibility complex. And no wonder. After first gaining notoriety for refusing to take a day off from his job at Pimlico Plumbers to celebrate his 100th birthday, Buster has since gone on to make headlines as agony uncle for FHM, as a member of one-hit wonders The Zimmers (that’s Buster giving the iconic rock-star finger at the end of the video), and for basically kicking the asses of a gang of muggers. So we should hardly be surprised to learn that “Bionic” Buster, after completing the Roding Valley half marathon in Essex on Sunday in 5 hours and 13 minutes, is now gunning for the London Marathon next month, even raising money for charity whilst doing so. If he finishes, he’ll be the oldest recorded marathon participant in the world.

We met Graham Kennedy, one of the two Presidents, and Leila Brosnan, a long-standing member, just before they headed out for a run.

This woman seriously rocks.

It's easy to laugh at mime - the performers can't say anything back. But in the case of the London International Mime Festival, they could well leap off the stage on bungee ropes and encase you in a massive block of clay then make you a key part of an adult puppet show. This isn't a two week lovefest for tall chaps in stripy tops and white make up trapped in invisible glass boxes: this is the annual celebration of non-spoken performance, ranging from puppetry to aerial acrobatics to breath-taking contemporary juggling to modern clowns.

The queues are already forming outside Buckingham Palace to see what lurks behind door number 21. Will it be the Star of Bethlehem? Or Michael Fagin?

A sad week for LAist as they lose their trusted and amazing editor Tony Pierce to the LA Times, but what a blast his last week was. He shared his 25 Favorite CDs of 2007 and wrote a great review of just a good movie, No Country For Old Men. At UCLA, thousands of students celebrated the end of their quarter by running around campus in their undies (lots of photos in a two-part photo essay, one, two). That wasn't the only photo essay either: Joss Whedon/Mutant Enemy friends and Star Trek actors all joined in at the Writers Strike and KROQ's Almost Acoustic Christmas brought two nights of amazing bands that included Avenged Sevenfold, Linkin Park (Part I), Modest Mouse, Muse, Spoon and The Killers (Part II). Not only is L.A. a great music town, it has just been named the best city for bookish types. For those who are looking for something a little more active, American Gladiators are back (yes!) and if that's not enough, how about a Christmas gift of action and adventure?

More Olympic cost rumbling Get inside MI5 via radio4 Lottery winners in Ealing, Islington and Kensington & Chelsea are running out of time Good Ken: Green500 scheme gets big firms to commit to reducing emissions Bad Ken: pigeons are starving in Trafalgar Square Image courtesy of Orhan via the Londonist flickr group....

Formally half of the much loved and missed Arab Strap, Malcolm Middleton's solo career revealed unexpected pop sensibilities. Sure, he's no happier, and he's just as foul mouthed, but this time he does it with added melody and pop hooks. Tonight's show at the Scala comes a week ahead of his unexpected stab at the Christmas number 1 with his typically jovial "We're All Going To Die". Originally the gesture started as a joke,...

Buttery spread brand Flora, sponsor of the London Marathon, has decided that its bread is better buttered elsewhere. After a 14-year association with the event, Flora has indicated that it will give up its sponsorship following the 2009 race. A delightful investment opportunity for those of you with £12 million lying around! Promoting itself as a heart-healthy butter alternative by placing its name on the hundreds of thousands of, presumably heart-healthy, runners doggedly completing...

They are to install an awfully costly new biomass boiler (£20 million - in Londonist’s book that’s expensive: mind you, you shouldn’t get us going on the subject of the cost of plumbing…) at their East London plant which will burn on something called ‘wheat feed’ (a bi-product of the flour industry). Which is really, really cool.

Londonist is fuming, literally and alas will be for quite some time – the £150 million plan to chill the tube looks set to be suspended. It’s deemed too expensive (shock, horror) by Transport for London, who has taken over from maintenance company Metronet. Of course our hopes of a cooler network were not that high – what with seemingly ludicrous plans to install ice under the seats or redirect cold water in Victoria –...

Harumph. Last night saw a wee splash of rain and a whole load of inconvenience in London. And this rather disgruntled Londonista was caught up in it. It’s not that we are spoiled brats and can’t cope without our PCs and tellies for an evening. By all accounts a snuggly, fire-lit night in, cooking pancakes over candles and making conversation with each other, never did anyone any harm – why the thrice weekly power cut...

Maxwell's Fullmooners has been running for some time at London's Comedy Store - audiences can expect Irish comedian Andrew Maxwell dressed in a cloak, hip hop dancers, a creepy singer with a ukulele called Lady Carol of the Moon, the 'concierge' Tim Fitzhigham (who we interviewed earlier this year) and a lot of werewolf style howling. The shows start at midnight and have been something of a cult hit.

Londonist is not normally anal or prohibitive about stuff. Hey, we can do nipple tassles with the best of them. And we are utterly dismissive of most of Nanny Government’s patronising dictums. But today we are all up tight….about fireworks of all things. We must confess to a decidedly school-marmly attitude to the things. Sorry ‘n’ all if you’re having a party tonight – we don’t want to dampen your fun or anything. It’s just...

Londonist does not support prostitution, let’s get this straight right away. But we were pleased to spot this news flash about a Guildford hairdressing Madam having her prison sentence reduced from 18 months to 12 months. Chunxia Bao was very naughty – she made an estimated £200,000 out of her ‘special upstairs salon’, where she employed two prostitutes to administer the old personal touch. Until prostitution is regulated or legalised, running a brothel is a...

If the clocks going back filled you with winter blues this week then we prescribe you must get yourself to Sadlers Wells sharpish. For a reasonable amount of quids you can get yourself a seasonal dose of magic and wonderment which will fix you right up. James Thiérrée's "Au Revoir Parapluie" is just what you need. Alright, so it's more expensive than a happy pill prescription from the GP or a map or your...

As many Londoners will know, DLR trains are entirely driven by computer. The DLR staff member on each train, known as the ‘Passenger Service Agent’ (a much less exciting title than ‘Train Captain’, which they used to be called), does not normally have any involvement in actually driving the train. Instead, their main functions seem to be to tell the train when to close the doors, to check passengers’ tickets, and to deal with problems if they arise (which they occasionally do). To quote the TfL website (which features a picture of a particularly hungover-looking DLR staff member):

At Londonist we are often chuffed when Londoners 'do quite well'. At least initially. Like most Brits, we love The Underdog - right up until that moment when they become A Loser. Then we slag them off vitriolically, sit arms-crossed in a huff on our collective sofa, mumble that we "never liked them anyway" and promptly forget all about them when the next Underdog comes along. What's cockney for 'schadenfreude' anyway? When Shirley MacLaine...

Tonight marks the climax of nine months' eager anticipation since we broke the news to you that the NFL was coming to town. Two days ago we secured a ticket via the final sale we mentioned last Tuesday and we can't wait for the action to begin at 5pm. If you're catching the game on TV (Sky Sports live, or BBC2 highlights at 10:50pm), you're in plenty of company. The game is being carried...

24. Haunted Roads For Halloween!