{"id":22936,"date":"2026-04-27T08:05:14","date_gmt":"2026-04-27T08:05:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/22936\/"},"modified":"2026-04-27T08:05:14","modified_gmt":"2026-04-27T08:05:14","slug":"cynthia-erivo-and-daddy-pig-shine-among-celebrity-runners-at-london-marathon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/22936\/","title":{"rendered":"Cynthia Erivo and Daddy Pig shine among celebrity runners at London Marathon"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Thousands of runners, including a host of famous faces<\/a>, crossed the London Marathon<\/a> finish line on Sunday, amidst warm temperatures, with many punching the air in triumph on the Mall. Among the notable participants were Wicked actress Cynthia Erivo<\/a> and former England cricket captain Sir Alastair Cook<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Cynthia Erivo<\/a> achieved a new personal best, completing the 26.2-mile course in approximately three hours and 21 minutes, significantly improving on her 2022 time of three hours and 35 minutes. After her arduous run, the Oscar-nominated star, visibly exhausted, was helped to a seat before speaking to the media.<\/p>\n

Reflecting on her experience, Erivo shared: “There was a little rough moment where I thought it was never going to make it, but then I found a little bit of strength. I\u2019m here, and I feel really proud.” Despite her early 5am start for the marathon, Erivo was scheduled to perform all 23 roles in Dracula at the Noel Coward Theatre in London<\/a> on Monday evening. “It\u2019s at 7.30pm, so I should be fine,” she quipped, adding: “I may be a little slower than usual.”<\/p>\n

When asked about the potential for the London Marathon to be held over two days in the future, Erivo commented: “It would be amazing. I may be just watching next year though.” She expressed her love for running, explaining that it allows her to “zone out” and “just be me,” providing a moment to “centre\u2026 I get to think about the things that I want to think about, zone out for a second, meditate for a second.”<\/p>\n

\"TheThe \u2018Wicked\u2019 star ran the marathon previously in 2022 (Getty)<\/p>\n

The distinctive Peppa Pig<\/a> theme tune heralded the arrival of children\u2019s TV character Daddy Pig at the finish line<\/a>, accompanied by “The Body Coach” Joe Wicks<\/a>. The pair completed the course in five hours and 51 minutes, running in support of the National Deaf Children\u2019s Society, following a storyline in Peppa Pig that revealed George Pig is moderately deaf.<\/p>\n

Post-race, Wicks conveyed his immense pride in Daddy Pig, praising his dedication in training and his impressive performance despite the warm conditions. He noted the crowd\u2019s reaction: “It\u2019s lovely when people say \u2018Joe!\u2019 and give me a little cheer, but 99 per cent of it was \u2018Daddy Pig, give us a wave!\u2019, kids smiling, kids getting excited. So I rode off the energy of Daddy Pig today, and it was great.”<\/p>\n

When questioned about other animated characters he might like to run alongside, Wicks responded: “Who can top Daddy Pig? There aren\u2019t many people\u2026 maybe one day, when Peppa\u2019s older, she might run with me as well.” He also addressed social media speculation regarding Daddy Pig\u2019s identity, stating that while social media has been “great at stirring up conspiracies,” “Daddy Pig is a pig and that is it. There\u2019s no human being involved.”<\/p>\n

\"JoeJoe Wicks and Daddy Pig ran as training partners (Ben Whitley\/PA)<\/p>\n

Sir Alastair Cook, upon finishing his race, declared the finish line as his favourite part. “Apart from that, just seeing the number of people that come out,” he added. He found a moment of personal joy at the 20-mile mark: “I\u2019d just say, seeing my little boy (Jack) and my family at around about the 20-mile mark, it didn\u2019t inspire me to run any faster, because I was done, but it was nice to see his face.”<\/p>\n

Comparing the marathon to his cricketing career, Sir Alastair remarked: “Cricket\u2019s easy. When you\u2019ve finished, when you\u2019re not very good, you cash out and sit down. There\u2019s no hiding place here.”<\/p>\n

Other notable finishers on Sunday included BBC broadcaster Sophie Raworth<\/a>, F1 driver Sebastian Vettel<\/a>, former Arsenal and Wales footballer Aaron Ramsey<\/a> and former British women\u2019s tennis No 1 Laura Robson<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Your support helps us to tell the story From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":22937,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[10221,3678,173,6355,529,10353,9846,27,6034,1317,7413,6804,7416,985,6767,7415,9852,10355,771,9850,10354,9847,9848,5,7414],"class_list":{"0":"post-22936","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-london","8":"tag-cynthia-erivo","9":"tag-editorial","10":"tag-england","11":"tag-horizontal","12":"tag-human-interest","13":"tag-incidental-people","14":"tag-lifestyles","15":"tag-london","16":"tag-london-england","17":"tag-london-marathon","18":"tag-looking-at-camera","19":"tag-marathon","20":"tag-one-person","21":"tag-people","22":"tag-photography","23":"tag-portrait","24":"tag-runner-athlete","25":"tag-smiling","26":"tag-sport","27":"tag-sports-race","28":"tag-sunglasses","29":"tag-track-and-field","30":"tag-track-event","31":"tag-uk","32":"tag-waist-up"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@UnitedKingdom\/116475640146897682","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22936","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22936"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22936\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22937"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22936"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22936"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22936"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}