Marathon race that's hard to fathom out

Most participants may be slumped exhausted in their armchairs nursing aching limbs but for one runner - and his 120lb diving suit - the London Marathon goes on.

Three days after the race started, Lloyd Scott, from Rainham, Essex, is halfway to his goal - the slowest marathon ever run - after making his way across Tower Bridge last night.

Mr Scott, 40, is on course to finish the race by Friday. He has covered just over 13 of the 26.2 miles he must complete.

"People say I must be mad to do it, and they're right - I have been mad from the start," said Mr Scott, who ran a marathon in Jordan last year dressed as Indiana Jones.

"I knew as soon as I took the first step last year that it was a terrible mistake, but I saw it through. This year, I wanted to do something that had never been done before," he added.

Meanwhile, his wife Carole, twin sons Luke and Elliot and daughter Aimee are following him round in a mobile home.

Buoyed up by passing the halfway mark, he said he was "doing OK now". However, his diving boots - each weighing 22lb - are beginning to wear out.

"Hopefully I should have some new ones today and I've got four pairs of socks on underneath anyway," he said. The helmet alone weighs 40lb.

The former firefighter and ex-Leyton Orient footballer is competing in aid of charity Cancer and Leukaemia in Childhood (CLIC). He beat the disease with a bone marrow transplant after being given a 10 per cent chance of survival.

The disease was discovered during medical tests Mr Scott needed after he inhaled a lot of smoke while saving two boys from a house blaze in 1987.

So far, some £2,000 has been collected from astonished passers-by."They're coming out of shops and offices and throwing money into the bucket, and the kids are even coming out of school when I go past," said Mr Scott.

"Drivers are throwing money out of cars if they can't stop."

2002 London Marathon in pictures