Phew What A Scorcher - Dudley Ladies Brave London Marathon Heat Wave

Shirley Jones, Jayne Morley, Rebecca Gentle and Lucy Cox, joined over 36,000 other runners on Sunday 22^nd April in completing the 27^th London Marathon in just over 5 hours in sweltering unseasonable heat, which will go down as one of the hottest on record.

St John’s Ambulance said it treated 5,032 people, and of these 73 were sent to hospital for further treatment.

Temperatures hit 21C at midday, equaling the 1996 record, and rose slightly higher in the afternoon.

Organisers installed four run-through showers along the route and added an extra 2,600 bottles of water to the normal stock of 25,000 bottles at each station to help runners deal with the high temperatures.

Celebrity chef Gordon Ramsey was among a number of famous faces to run - and suffer - in the heat.

"It was like running in a desert today." he said "I stopped to help one guy. It was quite bad. They were dropping like flies,"

So well done to all our brave girls, who proved what the London Marathon is all about.

Just a couple of years age, Shirley, Jayne, Rebecca and Lucy were absolute beginners who graduated from the Rita School of Running, so to take part in the biggest race in the world and finish with a smile on their face was a previously unbelievable achievement in its self and we are all extremely proud of them..