If you were one of the millions watching the thousands complete the London Marathon on Sunday then you would have got a small flavour of what the event is all about. The atmosphere around the whole route is tremendous and sometimes so deafening it threatens to drown you with sound, writes Dave Mutter.

It is very hard to get a place in the race without resorting to a charity place and many thousands are disappointed each year. First home for AVR this year was Alex Todd in a superb time of 2:47:34, 424th out of 37,000l, what a brilliant time achieved despite walking for a while at mile 20 – just when the wall starts to build.

Luke Reed also ran superbly, finishing 2,073rd in 3:10:19. He completed the first half in 1:29:53 and was hoping for maybe sub three hours, but he hit the wall at 16 miles and had to dig deep. Klara Pritasilova has been running well this year and was 5,154th just missing the 3:30 barrier in 3:33:31, a new PB by a long way. Carol Austin was another lady with a fantastic time, she was 4,671st in 3:30:35

Chris Polley ran well, but was a tad disappointed to not get under four hours by a measly 12 seconds. He was 11,106th in 4:00:12. In her first marathon Sharon Rooke was delighted to beat five hours, she was 15,574th in 4:18:29.

Mum and daughter Janet and Michelle Woodward were able to compete in the same race, with Michelle home first, 20,618th in 4:37:48. Janet was pleased with her race, determined to beat six hours- 32,134th in 5:41:02. Wilf Walsh reports nursing a bad colds around the course. He was aiming for 3:55, but snuffled round in 4:38:04, 20,681st, inspired to finish by the number of people who spotted his AVR vest and were complimentary about the Grizzly run. Liz Slade ran well to finish 34,571st in 5:45:04.

?Helen Eke ran the Paris marathon, in 4hrs 13mins, beating her marathon PB by 25 minutes, a super effort.

?If running the London marathon has inspired you- next Sunday, April 29 there is a walk or run of eight miles from Umborne village hall – just north of Colyton. The event is called Woody’s 8, entry is by donation and proceeds will go to 3 charities; Help for Heroes, LAM Action and ELF. Walkers start at 10am and runners from 10 to 11am (timed out either singly or as a team). With post race BBQ and cakes it will be an absolutely spiffing occasion.

To get your next Grizzly fix go out and buy a copy of June’s Runners’ World which has a 2 page race report of this year’s event and is so far voted 100% overall by Runners World readers.