ROTARY - Humanity in motion

A Rotarian’s View


With the Icelandic ash clouds around the world we all wondered if Russell Griffin would make the trip to London from his home town of Melbourne. Frantic text messages from various airports suggested that he was determined to arrive in time for the race.

“I am in Singapore.” “I have managed to get a flight to Frankfurt.” “I have got a flight to London.”

Tension was running high. Could we substitute a Rotarian for Russell? No the organisers said. Russell was guaranteed a place in next year’s race. What a thought training for a race that he had always wanted to run and then to be delayed for a year.

Russell arrived on the Thursday before the big race. Phew he is here.

Sunday arrived very early for many people. All marathon runners are given an electronic tag to put on their shoes so their families around the world can track the progress. That did not tell us Rotarians who were standing on the side of the road marshalling the position of Russell...

The cyclists shoot past at a blue streak speed. Then the elite male runners followed very closely by the elite women runners. Not an ounce of fat between them all. The Rotarians look to the horizon and see thousands of runners. We shout words of encouragement to the runners with their names on their shirts. Then out of the hordes of runners Russell appears in good time. Kisses and cheers all round as he shoots off to the finish.

After the race several members met up with Russell and he was still alive and kicking much too all our surprise. And very proud of the fact that he had completed the London Marathon in 3hrs 54 mins

Well done Russell for braving volcanic ash and arriving here from the other side of the world to run the marathon with jet lag and raise money for Tower Hamlets Rotary.


The Competitor’s View (Russell)

"In the end, 6 months of training did not prepare me for the impact of a volcano whose name I can’t pronounce in a country I’ve never visited. I did finally make it to London the night before the run. I presented myself at the Business Class check-in wearing a ‘London Marathon’ jacket mumbling something about representing Australia in this marathon on Anzac day and honoring my commitment to raise money for a charity……and a bit more drivel that either impressed them or made them put me on only the 2nd flight to leave after Europe’s skies had cleared just to shut me up!

Anyway I actually exceeded my fund raising target of UKP2,500 (over £2,700 at last count) and I ran the marathon in 3 hours 54. That put me very comfortably in the top 10 [thousand] at 9,397th place. To look at it another way, there were around 25,600 people behind me!

The London Marathon is like Rio’s Mardi Gras combined with a mass fun run through Piccadilly Circus during the peak crowd of Christmas shopping. There were many highlights, including the fact that I beat at least 2 Darth Vaders, one Elvis Presley, numerous English Knights and too many Fred Flintstones. Unfortunately I could not get near Buzz Lightyear who ran an impressive 3 hours 15 minutes in full costume. I wore an Aussie flag proudly displayed on my front and back and was rewarded with many shouts of ‘Aussie Aussie Aussie’ and the offer of a can of Fosters at about mile 11 (I declined as it was only 10am). The crowds lined the entire course including the top of Tower Bridge.

The only thing I would add is that Rotary Tower Hamlets helped me realize a lifelong dream to run the London. It is extremely difficult to get a place to run and when this opportunity arose I was only worried that I didn’t have enough time to train. I was fortunate to have a good base of training having run a marathon in Australia in May last year. "

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