Fastest non-sporting celebrity was Tom Audenshaw, otherwise known as Bob Hope in Emmerdale, who was joined this year by a number of fellow cast members. Tony also achieved the Guinness World Record for the fastest marathoner dressed in baby diapers.

Fastest female honour went to TV presenter Jenni Falconer in 3:31, finishing less than 10 minutes behind her former co-presenter Ben Shepherd.

Below are the finishing times of celebrities in the 2010 Virgin London Marathon. Clicking on their name takes you to the Marathonfoto.com site to see race photos of the celebrity (Sorry boys they appeared to have not caught any photos of Natalie Imbruglia). Clicking on their time takes you to the London Marathon result site where you can see the runners split times.

‘Not Known’ are celebrities listed as running in the official marathon press release but I couldn’t find their time. This could be because they didn’t run, didn’t finish or the registered under a different name than they are famous for. If you know any pseudonyms let me know and I’ll update the table.

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Macmillan Fairies

Stewart Robinson (5:27:30) and Joanna Ham (5:27:30)

Giraffe

Jean Paul De Lacy, tallest costume worn while running a marathon - 7.04 metres (5:55:11)

Jean Paul de Lacy, tallest costume worn while running a marathon - 7.04 metres (5:55:11)

Sledge Pullers

Gary Jones (5:38:34), Rob Owen (5:38:33) and Colin Lambert (5:38:34)

Gary Jones (5:38:34), Rob Owen (5:38:33) and Colin Lambert (5:38:34)

Firefly

Shark

Michael Coster (6:11:32)

Dog

David Hartley (5:57:45)

Lifeboat Man

Telephone

David Lock (6:11:17)

Apple

Ann Boyle (6:07:51)

Ostrich

Help For Heroes

Benjamin Mcbean (6:16:26), Mark Elliot (6:16:32), Matthew Kingston (6:16:24) and Martin Hewitt (6:16:24)

Fireman Bear

Michael Pitney (6:22:30)

Rhino

Michael Svatek (6:28:24)

Beer Bottles

Nicola Brown (6:40:53) and Suzanne Collin (6:40:53)

Rabbit

Michael Mccarick, aged 70+ (6:51:25)

Brentford F.C. Mascot

Stephen Reed (6:54:38)

Star

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Running kit. Hopefully you have gently broken your trainers in for the race. You shouldn’t wear them when walking around or going to the Expo as you will wear them down in a different pattern when you walk compared to when you run and you want the cushioning to be as new as possible. Make sure you take a variety of tops and shorts/leggings for our changeable British weather, so you can make a selection on the day.

Medication. You probably won’t forget every day medication, but I have forgotten my asthma medication to take during a race on more than one occasion, and it’s not something you can get from a chemist without a prescription.

Clothes for the start line. You know that bright orange cotton T shirt you got from one of your spring races. The one with the huge logo on the front and is so large you could wear to bed as a nighty. Well here is a useful opportunity to get rid of it, it can keep you warm on the start line and as you leave it behind on the start pen you can keep that warm glow on the inside knowing you will never have to see the thing again. Foil blankets saved from previous races are also useful to wear waiting for start.

Heart Rate Monitor/GPS Watch. OK in theory you could buy another at the expo if you have lots of money, but it would be easier to just remember to bring you original with you. Also don’t forget to bring your method of recharging your watch with you and if you have had your heart rate monitor strap for a while consider getting a spare battery or strap. If you rely on it to pace yourself there is nothing worse that the battery going flat as you approach the start line.

Open Sandals. When you finally take your trainers off at the end of the race either to get changed or to study the mother of all blisters on your foot, it’s hard to get you feet back into wet, covered in trainers. As attractive as you may look in flip flops and tracksuits, I find them indispensible at the end of a race.

And finally…

Registration Form and Passport. The two most important things for the London Marathon as without them you are not getting your race number from the Expo and with no number, you aren’t going to be allowed on the start line.

These are generally things I have forgotten to take with me to a big race, so feel free to comment with things you find essential not to leave at home.

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So yesterday there was the announcement of two withdrawals from the 2010 Virgin London Marathon.

The first was Martin Lel, who has previously won in 2005, 2007 and 2008 with a PB of 2:05:15. Lel was aiming to be the first man in history to win the London Marathon 4 times but had to pull out due to suffering prolonged pain in his right shin during training.

The second was Katie Price, or Jordan who started training two weeks ago and was aiming to beat her last years time of 7hours and 11minutes.

Comparing the coverage of these two withdrawals, its clear what is important to the national press regarding one of the world’s premier sporting events. Aside from the money raised for charities, the most important aspect of the marathon is exposure for celebrities and wannabes, forget about the elite inspirational athletes who actually will win the race.

In order to join in the celebrity exposure we have given you a run down of those taking part and their predicted times. Don’t know when these times were given, because as any runner knows when you enter in October you are always over optimistic so you can start in a good pen, and nearer the date you always predict slower so you don’t disappoint yourself or  your supporters.

So if you are competing on the 25th you can use the list to motivate yourself over who you will not allow yourself to be beaten by. If you are supporting on the streets you can guesstimate when you will see these running celebs. And if you won’t be anywhere near London on the day you can try and work out who these ‘famous’ people are.

UPDATE Check out the actual finishing times here

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I’ve never been a fan of Golden Bond places. Rather than the ballot entry fee of £30 the charities have to pay around £350 for a golden bond place which they have to recoup from the money you raise. If you feel passionate about raising money for a given charity, there are many big city marathons run around the same time as London you could enter for £30 or less, with more of your hard earned sponsorship money given to the charity directly.

If you desperately want to run London, there is no need to get your friends and family to pay for your impatience by thinking they are donating to charity, when really they are mainly just contributing towards your entry fee.  You will get a guaranteed place if you have been rejected 5 times and there is probably a good chance you would have got in through the ballot by that time. You could train harder and get a good for age time for next year. Or if you train extra hard and get a championship time by January 2010 you will still be able to race in April 2010

If you are a member of a running club, they have club places available. The regular competitive club runners will probably have their own places through either full or half marathon times, so if you want to run London for the first time, joining and becoming active in a club will probably lead to a club place offered to you next year.

If you have been lucky to get your own place in the 2010 VLM and want to fund raise for a charity then Virgin are now providing a more cost effective way to collect money. In the past most of us have had a JustGiving.com page for fund raising and it does have it’s benefits. Adding a link to your facebook page or sending out an email to friends you don’t see personally, is an easy way to encourage sponsorship and they collect gift aid for you. But they do this for a charge. A £10 donation can also reclaim £2.82 from the government as gift aid, yet JustGiving take 5% as a transaction fee (64p) plus VAT at 15% (10p) along with the credit card fee of 15p resulting in a whopping cost to the charity of 89p. Over 10 years £526m has been raised through JustGiving. Transaction fees of 5% would have earned them £26.3 million, that’s paying for some impressive overhead costs.

But with Virgin sponsoring the London marathon now they have set up Virgin Money Giving as a non profit making company to help you raise more money by only charging 2% as a transaction fee (card fees are the same) so the total cost to the charity is only 35p from a £10 donation.

Obviously the most effective way would be to get post dated cheques from your sponsors that you promise to cash only if you finish the race, ensure you get their permission to claim gift aid and then the charity gets to keep all 128% of your donated money. But if you are planning on a fund raising event and want on online sponsorship page for any event (it’s not limited only to VLM runners) then Virgin Money Giving (virginmoneygiving.com) could be the most effective way to collect your donations.

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