They say a picture speaks a thousand words. And that couldn't have been more true for one image from the London Marathon at the weekend. The true spirit of the 26.2-mile race was incapsulated in the shot of Ian Bamford running across the finishing line while supporting fellow competitor Steve McLelland, who had sustained an injury to his hip.
Mr Bamford, who took part in the event for a 13th time, and Mr McLelland, who took part in the famous London challenge for a 27th consecutive time, are close friends who are both in the same Swansea running club – 3M Gorseinon Road Runners. They both set off at different start times, Mr McLelland slightly ahead, but arranged to meet at Cutty Sark, just after the 10k mark, so they could complete the marathon together.
Mr Bamford, a Tata Steel worker originally from Gorseinon now living in Bynea, took part in the event dressed in a fairy fancy dress costume picked out by daughter. He said: "Steve started to struggle. We were fine up to about 15 miles but then the last couple of miles he was having issues with continually leaning to the left – he was having a few issues with his hip. Whenever we run I've always run to his right-hand side but I moved to the left-hand side here to hold him up. For the last two miles he was struggling quite a lot but I was just so pleased I could be there to help him and support his weight a bit.
"If he had been on his own they may have pulled him from the race. In five weeks time we're running the New York Marathon and in regards to what Steve's trying to achieve there's six world major marathons. If you complete all six you become a six-star finisher. I was fortunate enough to complete that in 2019 and Steve is in the middle of his journey. He is doing New York with me in November and next March we go to Tokyo to do the Tokyo Marathon. The main thing for me [is] I'm so proud of him and he's a hero of mine for what he has achieved at the London Marathon. On Sunday that's only the second time he has gone over four hours in the race. If it would have been the other way round he would have done exactly the same thing for me.
"The people that were cheering, especially on the embankment in the last two miles, they didn't know that I knew Steve and could see that I was helping him and there was a couple of times I had to bite my lip to stop myself from breaking down – it was that emotional."
Mr McLelland, 68, has raised £85,000 for good causes over the years. He said: "It certainly went beyond the realms of our existing friendship on Sunday when if it wasn't for him I wouldn't have done it.
"We got as far as Tower Bridge, my favourite part of the marathon, and my wife and my daughter were waiting for me. My wife said I was looking good and I responded that I was feeling good but around three miles or so after that I knew I wasn't running right. I knew my stride was shortening and my left hip was pulling and slowing me up.
"I had a tear injury on muscle behind the hip which made me tilt towards the left-hand side and on some occasions. If he wasn't there I'd have fallen over. There were various points where medical assistance was offered. We got to around mile 22 and Ian said: 'I think we'd better walk'. But I responded: 'There is no way I'm walking in a marathon'. My wife was waiting for me at 600m from the finish line and when she saw Ian and I coming past and seeing him holding me up she wasn't too happy. Once we crossed the finishing line she said: 'That's your last'. I responded: 'We'll have a chat about that'.
"He is a trooper – he will be my friend for life. He will be anyway but this endorses it now. I'm on the road to recovery now. I'll go out Saturday morning and have a little four-, five-, six-miler to get back into it. I don't want to push it to tear anything."
Mr Bamford completed the marathon with a time of four hours and 40 minutes and Mr McLelland finished in four hours and 37 minutes. Mr Bamford can still be sponsored by clicking here and Mr McLelland's sponsorship page can by found by clicking here.
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