'Sometimes I feel like having a lie-in'

11:14am Friday 18th April 2008

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DEREK Brown finished 118th in last Sunday's London Marathon despite being just two years shy of his 50th birthday.

The Chiltern Harrier left more than 35,000 runners trailing in his wake as he sped around the 26.2-mile course in a lightning time of two hours, 36 minutes and six seconds.

He said: "I didn't know I had finished so high up. I felt fresh at the end and I knew I could have given a bit more."

The Marlow boat yard worker managed to gatecrash the top 50 places in the 2002 Marathon with a time of two hours and 28 minutes and he believes he can break into the magic top 100 again.

He said: "I think I can do it again. Next year I will try and beat what I have done this year. I think I can get into the top 100 again. I was aiming for a time of 2.30 this time."

And he might well have had that time had he not suffered a dodgy mile at the halfway point on Tower Bridge.

He said: "I hit a bad patch there. It had just started raining and I got a bit cold and felt really sluggish going over the bridge.

"I thought I had gone but I soon got going again and felt good again."

It was only a temporary blip in an otherwise barnstorming run, but the veteran of 15 London Marathons couldn't tell you what he passed on the way round.

He said: "I don't see the sights. For me it is a race and I am focusing only on that."

But he did see the thousands of runners at the 12-mile mark as he turned for home at the 23-mile stage.

He said: "I feel for them but they have done just as well as me."

Brown's dedication deserves the results he is getting.

He trains twice a day, getting up at 4.30am to do a six-mile run, before putting in a nine-hour shift at the boatyard before coming home to do an evening run.

He said: "Sometimes I feel like having a lie-in but you have got to do this sort of training if you want to get to 2.30."

Brown did his maiden marathon in two hours and 52 minutes with what he says was no real training.' He said: "I would be doing a few miles a week but nothing like what I do now.

"I knew then that I could be quite good at this if I trained hard."

But finishing the race early does have its downside.

He still had to wait around four and a half hours for the stragglers to finish so that he could join them on the coach back to Wycombe.

He said: "I don't mind. I just went to a cafe and had some tuna sandwiches and a cup of tea."