A group of lads missed out on a spot in the London Marathon so ran the course overnight the day before - with no training. <br /><br />Josh Goddard, 28, tried to get a place in the race via the ballot and by applying through charities - but failed to secure a spot. <br /><br />Not the be disheartened, Josh instead decided the Thursday before the marathon to run the full route in the dead of night - finishing just as the official marathon kicked off. <br /><br />He was joined by his pals - Daniel Munrow, 28, a surveyor, Sean Murphy, 28, a solicitor, and Alex Peel, 28, a recruiter. <br /><br />The group completed the 26.2 mile route in four hours 10 minutes - stopping for water breaks along the way - with people coming home drunk from a night out cheering them on.<br /><br />Josh, a building surveyor, from Kentisbeare, Devon, said: “It was amazing.<br /><br />"People were stood outside McDonalds after a night out cheering us on, we had so, many drunk people shouting and motivating us."<br /><br />When Josh came up with the idea he sent a WhatsApp message to his mates - asking if anyone else was up for it and to his surprise three of his friends were. <br /><br />Amazingly, none of them had done any training at all - with Sean having never done any running in his life. <br /><br />Josh said: "Sean rocked up in trail running shoes Chelsea football shorts, he’d basically never done a run before." <br /><br />The four started the race at 2am on April 21 at the Mall in St James’ Park - where the official marathon ends - and set off running the entire route in reverse. <br /><br />The lads spent all week getting up as early as possible so they’d be able to get some sleep super early on Saturday night – but didn’t go on any runs to prepare themselves. <br /><br />Josh said: “We stopped off at couple of Shell garages along the way to pick up supplies and energy bars.<br /><br />"Obviously we didn’t have the tables where they hand out water and energy bars.<br /><br />“It was amazing, everyone we passed was cheering us on, I think a lot of people were very confused. <br /><br />“Because it was Saturday morning in the early hours, there was just loads of drunk people all around London who we were running past, it was quite an experience.” <br /><br />Josh, Daniel, and Alex finished together with a very respectable time of 4 hours and 10 minutes. <br /><br />For Sean, however, the task was a bit more gruelling and he finally came home around the five-hour mark at 8am – just as the official marathon was getting underway. <br /><br />Josh said: “Once the three of us finished, we then hopped on Lime bikes and went back to cheer Sean on as he was struggling.” <br /><br />The four then headed to Gail's bakery for breakfast before heading to the pub for pints of Guinness.<br /><br />They quickly headed home to shower and then came back out to cheer on the official marathon runners. <br /><br />Josh - who ran the Amsterdam Marathon in 2022 - used to be more into running, but had last done a run around Christmas time. <br /><br />Josh said: "Everyone's been really impressed with the combo of us running at night and with minimal training - it was an amazing weekend."
