Who are the Ever Presents who will run their 40th London Marathon on Sunday?
Only 10 men have run every London Marathon since the event was launched in 1981.
Ten men have run all 39 London Marathons.
The 40th will not be quite what they expected with runners choosing their own route after the coronavirus pandemic forced the mass event in central London to be scrapped this year.
Here is how they plan to achieve their 40th medal.
– The oldest Ever Present is Ken Jones, 87, who will run around his home town of Strabane, Co Tyrone, Northern Ireland.
Mr Jones said training had gone well “and I am feeling great”.
– Dr Malcolm “Mac” Speake, 78, is a retired GP from near Ipswich.
He said it had been hard to train for the original April date and then again for October, adding: “I’m looking forward to it but I’m looking forward to getting it over.
– Charles “Len” Cousens, 78, from Lowestoft, Suffolk, retired as a barber during lockdown.
Mr Cousens said he was not sure when the mass event would be able to return to central London: “I think this virus is going to be with us for years.”
– Roger Low, 76, from Camden Town, north London, works part-time in investor relations.
“I can say I have run every single London Marathon for 40 years, that’s an accomplishment,” he said.
– Bill O’Connor, 75, will be running near his home in North Finchley, north London.
He is raising money for the PSP Association after a neighbour died after being diagnosed with Progressive Supranuclear Palsy, a neurological condition caused by the premature loss of nerve cells in certain parts of the brain.
– David Walker, 75, hopes his four grandchildren Rosie, 11, Sam, eight, Olive, seven, and Flora, three, will join him to pass the finish line near his home at Chesham, Buckinghamshire.
Mr Walker is raising money for Mesothelioma UK after the death of his friend Lyn Bowen: https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/david-walker1135
– Terry Macey, 72, is a solicitor whose home and office are near the usual London Marathon start line in Blackheath, south east London.
“It will just be different. There won’t be the same motivation but it will still be great,” said Mr Macey who is raising money for the NSPCC.
– Jeffrey Aston, 72, from Cardiff, is a retired IT consultant.
Mr Aston is raising money for City Hospice in Cardiff which cared for his late wife Val before her death from cancer in 2016: https://justgiving.com/fundraising/jeffaston2020
– Mike Peace, 70, is a retired headteacher from Lustleigh, near Exeter, Devon.
Mr Peace is raising money for Rowcroft Hospice in Torquay: https://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/Mikepeace
– The youngest – and faster – Ever Present is Chris Finill, 61, from Cranleigh, Surrey who has run 37 out of 39 in under three hours.
He will be running loops at Dunsfold Aerodrome which is often used by Top Gear and has been loaned to him by the Rutland Group but said he is not sure if he will finish in under three hours: “I normally go into these races being able to predict what I will run.”
