What do you see in the picture, where was it taken? What does "Final Finisher" mean?
Tom Durnin ran the London Marathon last week and finished with a time of 8 hours. He was the runner to come in last place, yet a video of Tom finishing the race went viral and race organisers claimed this moment as "one of the greatest moments" in London Marathon history.
What do you think might be the story behind this picture?
Tom started training for the marathon last year but in December he was involved in a bad car crash that left him with a broken arm, and a bleed on the brain. Tom had to stop training for four months and could only start running again in March, four weeks before the marathon took place. Even then, he never managed more than 10k (about 6 miles).
Do you know how long the London Marathon is? 26 miles.
Tom was determined to run the race and was raising money for the bone cancer research trust. Tom says, "At mile 10 my ankle gave way and then at mile 16 my other knee went so I was just ploughing through on jelly babies and lucozade and everything else that was being handed out along the way."
Tom says giving up was not an option. He says one of the hardest parts was getting to mile 23. Tom mistakenly believed the race was 24 miles long so had prepared himself to finish when he realised that there was another three miles to go."
Organisers tweeted, "We are in awe of your determination to finish what you started."
- what is the London Marathon?
- why do people train for so long for the London Marathon?
- When Tom had his car crash, why didn't he decide to drop out of the marathon this year and do it next year instead?
- Tom had only run 6 miles before the race, which is 26 miles long. What do you think of his decision to go ahead?
- "At mile 10 my ankle gave way and then at mile 16 my other knee went" why didn't Tom just give up?
- What made Tom an outsider in this story?
- What made Tom an insider during the race? (people along the way giving him jelly babies and lucozade, organisers allowing him to take part)
- How do you think other runner treated Tom when they saw him struggling?
- Why do you think the mix up of run length affected Tom so much? That bit was worse than his ankle giving way - why?
- Should Tom be celebrating coming last?
-The video of Tom finishing last went viral. Why? What does this show about people around the UK today?
- What can we learn from Tom?
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