4:56pm Sunday 21st March 2010
© Press Association 2011
More than 165,000 people - some on spacehoppers and pogo-sticks and others on hands and knees - completed the Sport Relief mile run, organisers have said.
Tory leader David Cameron was among the first to cross the finish line in London, sprinting in ahead of Olympic athletes Christine Ohuruogu and Colin Jackson.
Elsewhere in the country, celebrities including singer Beverley Knight, DJ Norman Cook and comedian Patrick Kielty turned out to support the charity event along with eager runners in an array of unusual outfits.
A slightly puffed but smiling Conservative leader shook hands with Jackson after he stormed to the finish ahead of the former world hurdles champion. As he caught his breath, he said: "It's lovely to have a few people cheering you on - it makes running a lot easier. It was very nice and it is the only time I have beaten Colin Jackson at anything."
Asked how his political rival Gordon Brown would have fared, he replied: "I don't know - he should have turned up."
However, the Prime Minister also took part in the charity event, running "in one of London's parks this morning," said a Number 10 spokesman. His wife Sarah wrote on Twitter that she had "sponsored her husband to do the sportsrelief mile this morning (and put own feet up with cup of tea)".
Other famous faces who took part in the Sport Relief Mile along the Thames included model Jodie Kidd, TV presenter Ben Fogle, rower James Cracknell, comedian Eddie Izzard and paraplegic Iraq veteran Major Phil Packer. A clutch of soap stars battled it out in their own race, won by Hollyoaks actor Anthony Quinlan. Emmerdale, Coronation Street, Hollyoaks and EastEnders each entered teams of two cast members.
Participants took to the streets in droves in 16 cities, including Manchester, Bristol, Glasgow, and Leeds where some even painted themselves red. In Birmingham, a group of BBC Asian Network runners sashayed their way to the finish in a Bollywood themed effort, and in Southampton a bricklayer strapped 12 bricks to his back for his 12-minute mile.
Thousands more took part in 350 smaller-scale local events, most covering a mile and some opting for longer distances of either three or six miles. And participants did not restrict themselves to completing the challenge on foot. While some pushed babies in prams, others chose spacehoppers or pogo-sticks, and two men in Gateshead opted to the cover the ground on their hands and knees.
The events followed a TV telethon on Friday night which raised more than £29 million for charity.
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