 Over the years I have amassed a collection of running medals, which my wife refuses to allow me to hang in the house. She says it's the height of running wankery. So as an unabashed running wanker I have hung my medals here in the shed. So for the next few weeks I thought it might be quite fun to do a short medal Monday video each week telling the story of some of these bits of metal with ribbon attached to them hanging from a curtain rail in my shed. And what better way to start than with the London Marathon arguably the biggest and most well-known of the races I've taken part in. I've done five London Marathons and one virtual London. It was after many years of trying that I finally got into the London Marathon through the ballot in 2015. This is my medal from that year. I remember it was freezing cold and I had to wear two bin liners which I got from the Costa Coffee in Blackheath on the way up to the blue start. I had quite a good run but I slowed down significantly after 20 miles and eventually finished in three hours and 18 minutes. The following year I managed to enter by good for age qualification this is my 2016 London Marathon medal and it remains to this date my fastest London Marathon so far and my second fastest ever marathon at three hours and nine minutes. In 2017 I ran the London Marathon with a media entry. Myself and Martin Yelling had been contracted to film a series of training videos which would show the London Marathon from the inside. I did the camerawork and Martin was the talent. It was a super hot day I remember and because we were running backwards and forwards along the course filming various things it took us five hours and we ran well over 43 kilometers. By the way if you're enjoying the video finding it useful or interesting please do hit the like button and if you're not subscribed already please do subscribe that would be awesome and don't forget to hit the notifications bell as well. Thank you very much. Now if 2017 was hot well 2018 was an absolute scorcher. I managed to qualify as good for age for this year. Here's my 2018 medal. For spectators it was merely a warm day but for runners it was absolute torture and unfortunately I chosen this year to try for a PB. I got to halfway in one hour 33 minutes but like many others I succumbed to the weather and I couldn't hold on. I eventually finished in three hours and 24 minutes. I didn't qualify for London all make it in through the ballot for the next three years although I did do the virtual London event in 2020. It was an incredibly windy day. I had planned to run laps up and down wording seafront but the wind was so strong in one direction that at halfway I decided to just run with the wind behind me all the way to Brighton. Officially the London marathon phone app has me finishing in three hours 21 minutes but I prefer to rely on my Garmin watch which told me I finished in three hours 24. Having finally run another good for age qualifying time I was able to run the London marathon again in 2022 and here's the medal for that race. I was hoping for a GFA time again which for me would have been under three hours 15 minutes but despite a good first 20 miles I faded in the last 10k and finished in three hours 23 minutes. However it was a great race and the crowds this year for some reason seemed bigger and louder than I've ever experienced before. Hopefully with a little bit of luck and some more training I'll get to run the London marathon again over the next few years but have you run the London marathon? Let me know in the comments down below. What did you think of it? Would you recommend it to a friend? Would you do it again? Is it a good course for a marathon PB? Let me know all that in the comments down below and also if you've run it more than once what is your best time on the London marathon? Thank you very much for watching everyone. If you'd like to see my London marathon from 2022 then that is linked just here so click on that for the next video and we'll see you on the start line next time.