The day I met Tim and that 15 foot Nurse by nigeruns

It could be only one of two things, a reminder that this was the London marathon, and this is was the madness of marathon registration, and secondly, that somewhere deep inside that giant nurses caricature it could only be Tim Rogers from Realbuzz.com, who was about to embark on yet another 26 mile journey in a unconventional manner.

This was a photo call, and after a few test runs, the photographer from the Daily Telegraph wandered over to were I was relaxing, well I will admit rolling around in fits of laughter at this spectacle…."I have an idea for a great shot…." he mused. So I found myself standing there facing this huge pink Nurse, just like two knights of old in a jostling match, but without the lance….!! (But watch out, this idea may spark an idea for next year's event).

The idea was that we would charge towards each other, without tripping each other up, or me getting my head stuck between the nurse's boobs. As I passed Tim, it was intended that I would turn and show an expression of either - shock - horror - awe - or that look of craziness that you show when a runner in a 15ft Nurses outfit passes you …..Not too testing then.....This continued for a few more run pasts until we finally got 'that' photo in the can. 

A fantastic photograph, well framed, and the photographer himself, was in rapture that he had got 'thee' shot for the front page of Saturdays Telegraph, and equally excited we all agreed……Alas the photo failed to appear, the one thing that we are not are news editors, so I guess that is why we are just mere runners.

So why would anyone consider running a 15 foot - 5 stone pink nurse's costume…? For Tim this was his second outing in a outlandish costume, as in 2006 he ran in a 11 foot Super hero costume in aid of Anthony Nolan, setting a world record for the tallest fancy dress costume - and in 2007 taking this a step further in this Nurse's outfit in aid of the London Marathons nominated charity for 2007 Wellchild - Or in Tim's own words…"It's very - very heavy and it's BIG…!!"

With forecasted temperatures to hit the mid twenties during this years Flora London marathon, it will be hard enough to just run with a vest on, let alone being cocooned in that suit for hours on end….. "The heat is a problem…." explains Tim, "….It is very hard to describe what is like being in there, it rub's in places you don't expect it to rub, and obviously it gets worse as you go on. Last year in the Anthony Nolan suit, there were four bolts that held the head on, and they went into my head and there was blood everywhere. That is why I don't train in them, because you know that it is going to hurt, so you just prepare for it on the day. I do a lot of running - I do a lot of weights, and it is being in a decent enough shape to get a round".

Tim is not obverse to the odd challenge "I have a couple world records in the marathon. Last year I broke the record for the biggest costume, and a few years back I broke the record for running marathons in the quickest time in all seven continents". So, a bit of a jog then in the marathon then.....? "I fear not, it's going to be a bit of a tough one…"