A resounding achievement: participant in the London marathon tastes 25 glasses of wine along the way and already raises 17,000 euros

Runners dressed as a Teletubbie, a pineapple or a sunflower, they had seen that before at the London Marathon. But a participant who tastes a glass of wine every mile along the way would have been surprising, even in the British capital. Tom Gilbey took up the challenge and has already raised 17,000 euros for charity.

Anyone who wants to stand out in the London Marathon has to work hard. Among fifty thousand runners, it is certainly not self-evident to stand out, but at the London Marathon hundreds of participants always make an attempt by dressing up as, say, a caterpillar, a turd, a Rubik’s cube, a shark or the British king. Charles.

52-year-old Tom Gilbey found another way to stand out. The challenge that the British wine merchant took on: taste a glass of wine blindly 25 times along the way. He had to try to guess the grape variety, the country of origin and the vintage year. Something few will imitate, certainly not in combination with a marathon.

By linking a donation campaign to his campaign and sharing it with his followers on social media, Gilbey raised money for the Sobell House Hospice Charity, a support fund of the care home in Oxford where his own mother spent her last days. Gilbey himself hoped to raise £2,000 for the healthcare institution, but his campaign went viral and has already exceeded the £15,000 mark (15,100 euros).

His video report of his marathon reached almost 3.5 million viewers on Tiktok alone.

Under five hours

The Londoner tells the newspaper The Guardian that the marathon had gone very well and that he was even looking forward to the next glass of wine along the way. He managed to identify seven of the 25 wines completely correctly. He guessed one or two of the three parameters correctly for fourteen glasses, and was completely wrong for four glasses. All in all a great performance, especially because despite his drinking breaks he managed to complete the marathon in 4 hours and 41 minutes.

“When you are overtaken by runners dressed as a refrigerator or a camel, it can be very easy to feel depressed. Unless you know that a nice glass of wine is waiting for you around the corner”

Tom Gilbey

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“It was hilarious,” Gilbey reflects. “When you are overtaken by runners dressed as a refrigerator or a camel, it can be very easy to feel depressed. Unless you know that a nice glass of wine is waiting for you around the corner.” He was not afraid of getting drunk during the marathon. “If the wine was good, I swallowed it. Otherwise I would spit it out again,” he explains The Guardian.

After the marathon he felt like having one last glass, champagne this time. Gilbey doesn’t see himself repeating his stunt right away, but that shouldn’t stop anyone else from taking a chance. “Just implement your own crazy ideas for a good cause and see what happens,” Gilbey said.