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FORMER St Christopher's School student Nikola Reid was among the first time runners at the London Marathon. It was the senior hotel consultant's first marathon and also marked her 27th birthday.
On completing the race, she said: "I did it! My time was 3 hours 51 minutes, minus two toenails. Now, I want to do another one!"
Nikola, who now lives in London, raised BD613 for Whizz - Kidz, a charity which gives disabled children a chance to lead a more independent life, is now back at work until tomorrow.
Along with her boyfriend Oli Fraser-Looen, she is looking forward to cycling the whole length of Britain for charity and competing in the Windsor triathlon.
She said: "I came 7,329 out of 36,000 runners! I'm feeling fine today, walking normally although the stairs are a struggle on the thighs. My lower back and knee is in more pain though from falling over and I have two very large bruises and grazes!"
Bahrain trio Idris Mohamad, Dunya Elias and Christina Brown also ran their first London marathon and raised BD4,000 for UK homeless children's charity Alone. On completing the race an elated Dunya emailed GulfWeekly to say: "We have finished the marathon ... Thank God and all are still alive. It was very difficult getting through over 40, 000 people so neither Idris nor I could do our sub-3, sub-4 hour timings. Next time!"
Idris finished in 3:15, Dunya Elias 4:14 and Christina 5:15.
St Christopher's School's Year 4 head Robin van der Eyken completed Sunday's event in 4:36 beating the 18,000th finisher across the line by a whisker. Cancer charity CLIC Sargent and the Bahrain RIA Centre for children with communication and learning difficulties will benefit from funds raised.
