Runner completes marathon despite dog chewing his trainers to pieces
A London marathon runner managed to finish the race despite a dog chewing holes in his trainers shortly before the start.
Simon Collins, 41, from Canterbury in Kent, said he was preparing at a friend’s house near the start line when he discovered his trainers weren’t where he left them.
“Instead there was a trail of chewed-up foam leading to a satisfied looking puppy,” he said.
After “freaking out” and reaching the brink of tears, Mr Collins, a financial adviser, decided to get on with things and taped the shoe with gaffer tape.
Unfortunately, that lasted until mile three before “flying off in one piece”.
Mr Collins said he managed to finish with a time of 3 hours 51 minutes, “despite my toes sticking out of the end of one my trainers and getting a few odd looks from other runners”.
@nike@nikestore Kudos on your Vaporfly 4% trainers. A puppy savaged my shoes minutes before the London Marathon yesterday. Had no choice but to run int them anyway. They did not deteriorate at all and I still managed to finish. #VLM2019#justdoit#vaporfly#thedogatemytrainerspic.twitter.com/mBewvoXGod
— Simon Collins (@SMEC_UK) April 29, 2019
“I had friends trying to get to stores to get me a replacement pair but that didn’t work out either so I just had to make do,” he said.
“While I was running, a friend of mine posted the pics of my shoes to a running group on Facebook and it went a bit mental.
“Literally hundreds of people had commented, most expressing a mix of sympathy and amusement and wanting to know what happened.”
Mr Collins added, however, that was “probably because of the cute puppy rather than anything to do with me”.
