THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE UGLY AS CITY FIRMS RUN… AND RUN
HOGAN Lovells partner Richard Tyler will be walking down the stairs sideways for the next three days after completing yesterday’s physically and mentally exhausting 26.2 mile Virgin Money London Marathon.
“Towards the end of the race you end up running not much faster than you can walk because your legs wind down like a spring,” said Tyler, appropriately an energy specialist at the law firm. “The first half was fun but the second was increasingly ugly.”
Tyler finished the race in just over four hours to raise about £3,000 – once he has “rattled a few cages” at Lovells – to be split equally between the Geoff Thomas Foundation and Action Against Hunger, which is funding a feeding station for malnourished children in Liberia.
Meanwhile, Vassos Georgiadis, managing director of Melton Legal Search, joined the crowds to encourage his fellow Jane Bubear Sport Foundation trustees Martin Winter, senior partner at Taylor Wessing (3hrs 59 mins) and Brian Phillips, chief investment officer of GCP Capital Partners (4hrs 57 mins).
Not to be outdone, a group of 14 lawyers from Simmons & Simmons have been training for months to raise their target of £1,700 each for Scope, including partners Tim Pearce and Jonathan Melrose; Jonathan Hammond, the new head of financial markets; and associates George Hankey and Arthur Markham.
After finishing the race in four hours and 35 minutes, Markham took a cycle rickshaw straight to the The Punchbowl in Piccadilly Circus for some rehydrating ciders – “the best thing I have drunk all day” – while Taylor Wessing’s Winter celebrate his fifty-seventh birthday with his first beers in four weeks.
“I shall try hard not to fall asleep,” said Wessing, who is tomorrow flying out to the Greek island of Stetse for a holiday with Georgiadis, where the pair plan to take part in their traditional 16.5 mile race around the “brutally hilly” island – just for fun.
“When he beats me I always allege he uses a scooter, but he always denies it,” said Wessing.
PAYING TRIBUTE
AS the marathon was underway, tributes were being paid to Towers Watson consultant Gareth Crockett, 27, who was killed in a road accident last week during a sponsored run and bike ride that would have culminated in the London race.
Gareth was part of a team undertaking the epic challenge of cycling more than 450 miles and completing four marathons in eight days, travelling from Belfast to London. The group had planned the challenge to raise money for Leukaemia & Lymphoma Research in memory of close friend John Erwin who passed away from the disease last year. Donations in memory of both Gareth and John can continue to be made at justgiving.com/beldonchallenge.