Heroic marathon runner offered incredible surprise by the running club of the man he helped over the finish line
THE heroic London Marathon runner who made headlines for stopping to help a stranger over the finish line has been praised by the fellow competitor’s running club.
Matthew Rees, 29, was filmed carrying exhausted David Wyeth the last 200 metres of the gruelling 26.2-mile slog after David’s legs gave way beneath him.
David’s running club – Chorlton Runners – has even offered to pay for Matthew’s entry into the 2018 race.
In an open letter to Matthew, the Chorlton Runners’ Chair Neal Wainwright wrote: “As a club, we know and love David who is both a wonderful runner and a supportive member of our community, seeing him in distress at such an agonising stage of the race just made us hope another of our runners was close by and could stop and help him over the line.
“The reality was our next runner was a good 5 minutes away, but by complete chance you were a few seconds behind him and displayed the characteristics that any running club in the UK would be immensely proud of.”
The club said they had been impressed by the Swansea Harriers member’s kindness, saying: “One thing the footage does show is for the many runners who could have stopped, it was only you who chose to. For that reason, you have our eternal thanks.”
The letter then went on to say: “We realise that you have in a small way sacrificed your race and as a community we have unanimously decided that this is something we would like to put right.”
They have now offered to pay for Matthew’s entry into the 2018 race, also offering to pay for weekend accommodation and first class rail travel from Swansea to London.
The ballot for the 2018 race will open on May 1 and close on May 5, with successful applications being told the good news by mid-October. Lucky participants will then need to pay the entry fee – likely to be around £35 – within a set time period.
Unsuccessful applicants can also get in on the act by running for a charity, but there are only limited places and to secure a place runners must approach the charity to see if they have space.
Offering goodwill to Matthew ahead of next year’s race, Chorlton Runners added: “We will of course try our very best to ensure none of our runners require your assistance on the day.
“You can also be assured that if you experience any difficulties of your own there will be no shortage of black and gold vested runners eager to help.”
David had earlier recounted what it was like to struggle through the race, saying on Good Morning Britain: “I was on track at least to mile 20 and thought I was coming through a dark patch, but it just got darker and darker.
“I turned into The Mall and my legs just went beneath me.
“I’d been struggling before that, and I knew I hadn’t been going in a straight line and really I should have stopped, but you train also to override those sensations.
“I knew I was in trouble then when I went to the ground.
“The next thing I heard, two metres out was Matthew’s voice in my ear encouraging me up, ‘let’s do this, I’ll get you over the line’.”
Selfless Matthew, of Swansea Harriers, said: “I came round the final corner ready to sprint that final 200m, but as soon as I saw David and his legs go beneath him there was no other option.
“I had to help him, he’d come 26 miles and the finish was just there.
“When I went over and spoke to him you could see how determined he was.
“He said ‘I need to finish’, I said ‘we will finish, we’ll finish together’.”
But despite sacrificing a quicker time to help his fallen competitor, Matthew insisted the moment was one of many.
He said: “This moment was caught on camera but this was happening throughout the race, everyone’s helping each other out. I think this is just the one that hit the spotlight.”
David, from Manchester, was seen falling backwards before Matthew stopped to help on the final stretch of the race, in the shadow of Buckingham Palace.
A steward joins in and the trio struggle over the line together as Matthew is seen shouting at David to stay on his feet.
Matthew, who works at a bank, said yesterday: “I saw him try to stand up again and his legs just went down again, and I thought ‘this is more important, getting him across the line is more important than shaving a few seconds off my time’.”
He added: “I went over to try and help him and every time he tried to get up he just fell down again and again, so I just tried to cheer him on, picked him up and said: ‘Come on, we can do this’.
“He was really grateful, but he wasn’t very coherent, he was just like ‘I have to finish, I have to finish’ and I said ‘you will finish, you will get there, come on let’s do this’, but every time he tried to move he would just fall again so it was important to guide him.”
Despite David’s exhaustion both men finished the race in less than three hours.
In September last year triathlete Alistair Brownlee helped his struggling brother Jonny over the line after he almost collapsed during a race in Mexico.
Jonny was leading the World Triathlon Series with just 700m to go when he started to succumb to the blistering heat.
Two-time Olympic champion Alistair stopped to help his brother rather than passing him.
David Wyeth and Matthew Rees were two of more than 40,000 runners taking part in the London Marathon yesterday.
The 26-mile route’s start points were at Greenwich Park or Blackheath, with runners having to pound the pavement all the way to the finish line outside Buckingham Palace.
Kate Middleton was pictured with Wills and Harry in high spirits at the sidelines as they took selfies and “high-fived” the runners.
Stars including Chris Evans and Eastenders actor Adam Woodyatt also took part in the marathon.
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