Top Ten Outfits

My top ten outfits for racing have to be:

1 Tarzan (London Marathon 2008) This costume was supremely light and apart from some chafing off the plastic leaves only helped my performance with a 3:01:55. Later wore it for Tarzan's Bananathon, a twelve hour running extravaganza for Leukaemia Research Foundation.

2 Papa Smurf (London Marathon 2009) Though I didn't run fast in this gear it got a great reaction on the course. I had written Papa Tony on my vest so, hardly anyone knew it was meant to be papa Smurf, it looked nothing like him. Most people shouted 'Gnome' or 'Santa' which kept me amused all the way round.

3 Stockport Harriers Vest (Umpteen races) You can't beat the old club vest. Never seen as a novelty until worn in the 63.3k Roentgenlauf in Germany, "Guten tag, wir komme aus Stockport!"

4 Leukaemia Research Vest (many races) Now Leukaemia and Lymphoma Research vest. I wore the standard kit one year at The Great North Run with the addition of a blue face and body and had my photo taken with Sir Jimmy Saville. The make up was water based and sweated off by the time I got to the end.

5 Elvis (London Marathon 2007) Fantastic fun, but flawed in that water collected in the flares making the trousers very heavy and made my crotch area see through.

6 Elvis with a Stockport Harriers vest and Santa hat (Stockport 10 ) A stupid idea

7 Banana (Bananaman Chase 2006) Hats off to anyone who races a half or full marathon in one of these things, 10k was more than enough for me on the world's hottest day.

8 Rolf Harris (Run The World, Hyde Park 1986) Whilst at Drama School decided to 'Rolf' The World (seem to remember having to walk most of it)

9 Seventies shorts and Afro (Great North Run 2003) Wearing Seventies clothes for a whole month for charity was a truly awful idea. The one saving grace was that this was the last day of the month and I ran a decent time.

10 Dublin marathon Kit (2004) Only wore the kit once, but broke 3 hours for the first time in it.