Canoe endurance at London Marathon

Rob / 21.04.2005

Barry Matthews and Gary Jolliffe, of endurancelife completed their London Marathon ‘by canoe’ last weekend, raising £2,500 for ‘Children in Crisis’.

The pair made their way around the course carrying their ‘canoe’ on shoulder harnesses and challenging the crowd to throw in coins. They carried a megaphone to issue the challenge to fill the canoe with cash and long handled fishing nets so they could reach out to the crowd and collect in the money.

They got a great response and their backs and feet paid a ‘heavy’ price … £1460 worth of coins weighing in a 45Kg! As the weight increased their pace slowed and the eventually reached the finish line in 8 hours and 15 minutes, happy to have made it, but totally exhausted.

“It was a brilliant day,” said Gary, “and big thanks must go to generous and supportive crowd. The best bit was having 2 ‘Sunday Sport’ Blondes climb in the boat with us for a photo shoot and the worst was the agony in our shoulders and feet after 18 miles!”

They are now recovering, and concentrating on preparing for the next endurancelife multi-sport race, to be held on May 21st in Sussex.