YES, we did it. Every single one of the 25 members of the travel industry’s Dream Team managed to complete the 26-mile London Marathon course and lived to tell the tale – well, just about.
The times ranged from an impressive 3hrs 40mins set by David Park at Landmark Travel Channel to 6hrs 23mins by, no… we won’t say who.
The three Travel Weekly girls started together but, after a few loo stops, they split up.
Sporty deputy features editor Sam Lewis crossed the finishing line in 4hrs 25 mins, beating her target time of 4hrs 30mins (and also five rhinos).
Thanks to a burst of energy in the final mile, late entrant deputy news editor Beverley Fearis just about beat her target time of 5hrs (and three running trees) – with a time of 4hrs 59mins.
And, despite only just recovering from a flu bug which almost forced her to pull out at the last minute, news editor Liz Bird managed to complete the course in just under 6hrs, achieving her target of simply finishing the race without killing herself (and beating several dedicated runners from Age Concern).
The girls would like to say a special thank you to the rest of the TravelWeekly editorial team who each deserve a medal for enduring weeks of tedious rants about training schedules, sports bras and the pros and cons of isotonic drinks.
And all in, the Dream Team would like to say a big thank you to every one in the industry who has generously sponsored them in aid of the Family Holiday Association.
Between us we have managed to raise around ú40,000 for this worthy cause, which will pay for much needed holidays for around 150 underprivileged families.
Andy Grout, at the FHA, said he was delighted the team managed to raise so much more than the target amount of ú25,000.
“The publicity we got from all the coverage in Travel Weekly helped a great deal,” he said. “Thank you so much to everyone who took part and to all the sponsors.”