Dear Londoners — there was a proper pep in our step as we arrived at the Londoner office this morning, still basking in the afterglow of a glorious weekend. We're not the only ones; on his way in, Peter spotted a man still in his London Marathon running gear, complete with medal, perhaps returning from an overnight celebration.
The city is alive with similar feeling; the marathon, always one of the biggest events in the capital's calendar, took on super-size proportions yesterday with winner Sabastian Sawe doing something few thought was possible: running a marathon in under two hours. One company that did believe in Sawe was Adidas and we've got more on their massive PR coup around his historic feat in our briefing below. But the Kenyan's achievement was also a huge win for London. The three top men’s marathon times ever took place in the spring sunshine yesterday, whilst Tigst Assefa threw down the world record for the women’s-only marathon for good measure. Expect to see a heap of messaging from City Hall in the days to come.
We’re in a bouncy mood this morning too and our jam-packed briefing shows it. We’ve got a court update from sacked Pride in London boss Christopher Joell Deshields, while in Kensington, residents are trying to ward off coachloads of fervent tourists hunting down the flowering wisteria for their social media feeds. Plus: scrutiny of parliamentary piss-ups has several Labour MPs bristling. So what are you waiting for? Read on.
Get yourself down to Fleet Street
Untangling Victorian murders, digging into Shakespeare’s life in London and retracing Agatha Christie’s footsteps across the capital: the Fleet Street Festival of Words is back from 7th to 16th May and we’re excited to be going along. You can hear Sir Ben Okri discuss A Tale of Two Cities, the author Lottie Moggach talk about the crime that inspired her new book and watch a live recording of The State Of It podcast from The Times, where leading political hacks Patrick Macguire, Gabriel Pogrund and Steven Swinford will offer the inside scoop on what’s happening in Westminster.
Click below to book your tickets and we’ll see you there.
The story behind the shoe that won the London Marathon
As Sabastian Sawe crossed the finish line at yesterday’s London Marathon, nobody, not even the sporting and broadcasting greats covering this moment of history, seemed quite sure of what to do. A bewildered Gabby Logan asked the 31-year-old Kenyan, having just completed one of the greatest sporting achievements of all time, what his celebratory meal would be as the first man to run 26 miles in under two hours. “Do you go now and have some fish and chips and a beer?”
But one person alive to the gravity of the moment was an Adidas press officer, who immediately pried Sawe’s new Adidas shoes off his battered feet and scrawled on them: ‘1:59.30 WR SUB 2’. In recognition of his paymasters, Sawe — who will receive around $1m (£737,000) in bonuses from sponsors — dutifully held it up to the camera — the ensuing picture is now circulating globally. If it looked like Adidas had been preparing for this moment, they had.
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