FORGET hitting the wall, one marathon runner had much more fun by hitting the bottle instead.
Wine aficionado Tom Gilbey completed the 26mile London Marathon by attempting to neck – and identify – 26 glasses of wine along the way.
The 52-year-old wine events organiser and writer from London sloshed back the plonk (and ran a decent time of 4hrs 41mins) with aplomb and also managed to raise an impressive £10k for Sobell House, a palliative care hospice based in Oxford which cared for his late mother.
Social media is in awe of the TikToker’s efforts, with the video now having more two million views. One amazed fan wrote: “This man drank 26 different wines & still managed a sub 5 marathon. let that sink in.”
Another was tempted to get involved themselves, writing: “If this was a regular thing at marathons I might actually be convinced to enter one.”
While a third joked “I did this last night without the running.”
Another seemed to have found a new national hero, writing: “This is peak Britishness, never mind all this St George’s stuff, running a marathon and getting pissed while doing it.”
Gilbey said of the huge challenge of his Just Giving page: “I’m running the London Marathon to raise money for the wonderful team at Sobell House hospice, who nursed and cared for my dear Mum in her last few days.
“I will be blind tasting one wine every mile, aiming to guess the grape variety and country for 26 wines… and not die doing it.”
Incredibly Gilbey managed to identify seven of the 25 wines he managed to swig completely, got 14 mostly right and four completely wrong.
While viewers of the video could be forgiven for thinking Gilbey is close to plastered by the end of it, the swaying and staggering is more through exhaustion than inebriation.
Gilbey revealed he spat most out, although without a spittoon. He was reported as saying in the Times: “I splashed my fellow runners as I ran along. I did drink three of them that were pretty good.”
Discussing the calibre of the vino – which ranged in price from £3.50 to £40 – provided by his family en route, including son Freddie, 26, who acted as his producer, he explained: “It started off dreadfully. I was drinking Casillero del Diablo, which isn’t a great wine at the best of times, but this was at 9.30am in the cold.
“Thankfully there were good ones. A chablis, a barolo. All the absolute dishwater stuff was at miles 13-15.”
As one commentor pointed out of his impressive feat: “The running whilst drunk super impressive but I don’t think people realise how insane it is how many wines were correct! As a sommelier I salute you! ”
There is still time to sponsor Gilbey, who has no plans to do it again, if his wine-fuelled antics have inspired you.
@tomgilbeywine AND WE’VE ONLY DONE A VIDEO … 26.2 miles 25 wines tasted blind 7 fully correct, 4 wrong & 14 mostly right Over £10k raised for @sobell.house Donation link still open in Bio …. BIG FAT THANK YOU ❤️ #londonmarathon #marathon #blindtasting #tomgilbey ♬ original sound - Tom Gilbey