Celeb handicaps set to improve at London
Photo - Tony Audenshaw (handicap 9.1) when running as a Smurf
Will you be visiting the London Marathon Expo today or tomorrow? Have you claimed your runbritain handicap score yet? If not then please visit us on the runbritain stand number 132 where you can sign up to claim your handicap score and be entered into the daily prize draw for a pair of Sennheiser headphones!
Your handicap score enables you to record your progress and compare your score across a variety of distances and terrains. You can also compare yourself with your training buddies, running superstars or celebs. We are expecting new scores as a result of running the Virgin London Marathon from:
James is a leading star of the TV series The Only Way is Essex. James will be running, on Sunday, for Cancer Research UK. We expect his handicap score to come down by a considerable amount as he only has one result in the data base, at the moment, from the Great North Run where he ran 2:35. Go James!
You'll have a much tougher job to match this marathon running celeb! Best known for his role as Bob Hope on the popular ITV1 soap, Emmerdale, he has completed ten London Marathons. In 2010 he broke the Guiness World Record for the fastest time set by a runner dressed as a baby, when he completed the Virgin London Marathon in 3:13. He has also run 3:18 dressed as a fairy! Tony will be running for Leukaemia & Lymphoma Research and we have yet to find out whether he will be in fancy dress this year. Tony's current handicap score is a credible 9.1. We're not sure whether we would back him to lower it this weekend although he's looking in good shape and regularly running the tough Marple parkrun, that has an SSS of around 4.0, in less than 21 minutes!
We're really excited to see how Katherine will do as we haven't seen her since the Swansea Bay 10k in September 2010. Katherine is a mezzo-soprano opera star. On that occasion she achieved a handicap score of 32.4 but it has gradually crept up to 36 because she hasn't been putting in any performances (in running anyway) and we knew her score wasn't as impressive as it could have been as she ran that particular race at a very comfortable pace whilst tweeting as she went! Katherine is running, on Sunday, for We are MacMillan Cancer Support and we wish her all the best!
Sophie is a BBC news reader and journalist. She has a current handicap score of 12.1 and has been putting in regular training at the Richmond Park parkrun. On Sunday she will run for The Prince's Trust.
Kelly is a former heptathlete and has an Olympic bronze medal (2004), World Championship bronze medal (2007) and Commonweath Games gold medal (2006). Her current handicap score is 22.1 from her 5k outing at the Cannon Hill parkrun. She will run for Age UK and Youth Net on Sunday.
Sian has a handicap of 19.7 from her Great North Run performance last year. Sian is a current affairs presenter and a former presenter of BBC Breakfast. On Sunday she will run for We are MacMillan Cancer Support and we are excited to see how she will get on.
Will you lower your score on Sunday? We'll report back on how all of the above do next week!