A POSTMAN from Headless Cross was among those pounding the pavements of Birmingham this weekend as he competed in the gruelling 13-mile Great Birmingham Run.
Alan Whiting swapped his envelopes for trainers on Sunday (October 18) as he completed the half marathon in aid of the John Bonham Memorial Fund.
“It actually wasn’t too bad,” Alan told the Standard on his well-deserved day off.
“Each year I hope to knock a bit off my time and I did just that.”
The 45-year-old postman completed the course in 1,435th place, out of 22,000 entrants, with a time of one hour and 42 minutes – three whole minutes faster than last year’s attempt.
He added: “The hills were the worst, especially after the 11 mile mark.
“I’ve run the course for the last five years and it has changed a bit but it wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be – although I did enjoy a couple of beers and a Chinese takeway went down rather well afterwards.”
Alan, who lives just a few doors down from where John Bonham was born, has so far raised around £600 from the run which will go towards financing a permanent memorial to the legendary Led Zeppelin drummer, who was born and grew up in Redditch.
The quickest male and female Redditch residents to cross the finish line were Robert Handy, another Headless Cross local, who crossed the finish line with a time of one hour, 22 minutes and Joanne Scott from Callow Hill who completed the course in one hour and 29 minutes.
Visit https://crowdfunding.justgiving.com/alan-whiting" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; where donations can still be made.