A man in his 30's, has gone from first to last in the London Marathon, after trying to use public transport to shorten the course. Bob Loans from Cornwall had a comfortable 3minute lead as he approached Tower Bridge. It was at this point he decided he would get a helping hand from Transport for London to complete the course in record time. However things were about to go terribly wrong for him.
Bob decided to leave the official course and head for Tower Hill Tube station. Once there, he could get the tube to Westminster and rejoin the race several miles ahead of his competitors. No sooner had Bob brought his zone 1&2 day pass, an announcement was made saying that the westbound District line was suspended due to an incident at Monument. Bob then panicked, and jumped on a circle line train. After 50 minutes, and having read the Metro from cover to cover, Bob realised he was traveling the wrong way so disembarked at Edgware Road. His next move would have proved brilliant at 4am but over lunchtime hopping on the 156 bus to get to Westminster was disastrous. He persisted on the bus ride for 1 hour 45 minutes, until he clicked why it was called a congestion zone and duly got off in Oxford Street. A quick Big Mac, medium fries and a Diet Coke, then it was back to the street to hail a cab. Bob explained to the cab driver that he wished to get to Westminster, but that would be impossible with all the road closures. The cab driver agreed to take him to Tower Hill as he knew a short cut. After listening to the driver's moderately explicit views on the Kenyan runners for a further hour and a half Bob paid his fare and continued where he left off.
The blatant cheating was only noticed as the runner in second place could not remember passing Mr. Loans. Neither could the man in last place dressed as a Hippo.
