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• From Mark Smee - A Report From The Gorm Marathon - 2nd Feb 2011
• Gabriela Lena Frank And Members Of The Minnesota Commissioning Club - 3rd Apr 2010
• A Skype Conversation With David Hurley And Chloe Veltman - 17th Feb 2010
• A Message From Vip Vicki Gray - 16th Feb 2010
• Alexandru Damian Travels From Romania To London - 30th Mar 2009
• Debra On Sing With The King's Singers Feature - 13th Mar 2009
• From Margery Elliott - 22nd Oct 2008

02 / 02 / 2011 - From Mark Smee - a report from the GORM Marathon

The King’s Singers’ Tough Guy Does It Again

Around 2 years ago, during a post-concert social event with KS supporters, Paul Phoenix innocently asked a grey-haired gentleman what he was planning to do at the weekend, and was astounded to hear this reply: “Well, I’m going to get up at 6, run a marathon on my own for fun, and then think about a spot of breakfast.”

Having successfully completed the notorious ‘Tough Guy’ assault course in 2009 and 2010, Paul felt the need for a new challenge. Remembering the clearly insane fan, he decided that a marathon would be just the thing to try. But not one of your puny road marathons, mind, a full-blooded cross-country marathon through fields thick with stodgy clay and oozing mud in the freezing cold of January.

And so it was that Paul and a group of friends organised and ran the Gransden Off-Road Marathon (The GORM), a two-circuit event, with a single-circuit half-marathon version for more genteel souls (The GORMless) on Sunday 30th January, raising over £1,000 for repairs to the swimming pool of their local primary school, the Barnabas Oley, in the process.

Paul was seriously under-trained for the GORM owing to a chronic knee injury and his participation was in doubt until, having completed the GORMless circuit, he decided against medical advice to attempt the full 26.2 miles. Accompanied throughout by Mark Smee, the very grey-haired gentleman who’d first put the idea in his head, he battled through mud, pain and fatigue to cross the line in 4 hours 30 minutes. Well done Paul, and here’s to your doing it next year in less than 4 hours!!