Guildford Athletes Run Test Olympic Marathon

At 6am this Bank Holiday Monday while most of the UK was enjoying a long weekend lie-in, Guildford and Godalming runners Ben Evans and Phil Cake were pounding the streets of London as they took part in a test run for the London Olympic Marathon in 2012.

Watched over by IOC members they joined a group of fifty elite athletes invited from all over the country to run the entire 26.2 mile course in exactly three hours, giving the organisers a chance to test out everything from the state-of-the-art Swiss timing chips to the race numbers that will be worn on race-day in just over a year’s time.

The course had been planned by the London Marathon committeee to include some of the capital's most appealing sights - Buckingham Palace, St Pauls Cathedral, and all runners were asked to provide by their feedback on its success and advise on any problems that might affect the likes of Paula Radcliffe on race-day.

Its certainly a bit different to running around Stoke park on a Monday morning.''Its a great feeling to be the first people to run the Olympic course,' Ben suggested. 'And also do our bit to make the games a success for athletes and spectators from all over the world.'