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AMAZING mum Penny White successfully completed the London Marathon on Sunday crossing the finishing line in seven hours and three minutes despite struggling with stomach cramps, sore hips and a massive blister on one of her little toes.
As many suffered in the heat, expat Brit Penny, 45, used to training in the Bahrain sunshine, found the warm weather perfect but came unstuck with an adverse reaction to the energy gels she swallowed.
“I managed to carry on, I was determined to finish no matter what!” she told GulfWeekly as she recovered with family and friends, “although it didn’t help when they ran out of water at six of the water stations.
“I found the whole experience very intense, a bit overwhelming at times as it was like running for seven hours through a rock concert, with people screaming your name and music and food along the route.”
Penny is married to Chris, 56, a senior procurement consultant, and lives in Jasra. They have three children - Katherine 18, is currently on a gap year before starting an anthropology degree course at Sussex University, and St Christopher’s School pupils Daisy, 15, and Ruby, four.
She was running to support Brain Research UK, a charity which looks into ways to help people with Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s and brain tumours and originally hoped to raise a couple of thousand pounds, as reported in GulfWeekly, but incredibly secured £5,000 for the cause.
And when she and Chris caught a cab from Covent Garden after the marathon to her brother-in-law Dave’s home where they were staying, even the driver chipped in, taking 50 notes for the fare and returning 15 as a donation to Penny’s charity.
