Merry Men Dave and Max Cross the finish line

By Dave, who ran London's 10k on the 8th July 2012 in honour of the Robin Hood Tax campaign. 

Dressed as Robin Hood, I exited Piccadilly Circus station along with hundreds of other more soberly attired runners. The big day had arrived – the day of the London 10k run! As I greeted my running compadre – another Robin (aka Max) - the grey blanket of cloud above us started to spit and drizzle. A bad sign, you might think – well, not so good for spectators, but great for runners. (Cool conditions are cool!)

Along with 30,000 runners we set off, a small proportion costumed – a Scooby-doo here, an Incredible Hulk there – to the cheers of an enthusiastic, if slightly damp, crowd. Some of us were running for causes, but most were out to run one of London’s most scenic routes: the six and a quarter mile course covers Trafalgar Square, the Embankment, Westminster Bridge and the Houses of the Parliament.

Max and I had great fun playing to the people lining the roads, waving to them, applauding them for standing out there in the rain. In return we received regular chants of “Go Robin”, sometimes people broke into singing “Robin Hood, Robin Hood, riding through the glen”. One rather confused individual shouted: “Go Peter Pan”! After looking rather incredulously at each other, I yelled back: “I’m not Peter Pan, I’m Robin Hood – if I was Peter Pan I would’ve flown round”.

Before we knew it we were at the end turning into Whitehall towards the finish line. As we approached Downing Street we agreed to give the Prime Minister a Sunday wake-up call so in unison we chanted: “What do we want? A Robin Hood Tax! When do we want it? Now!” After a few rounds, the police started to take notice. So we ran off like naughty schoolchildren to finish the 10k, which we did crossing the line together.

All in all, an excellent experience and I’ve nearly reached my £2,000 fundraising target. If you’d like to help me get over that line, please visit: http://www.justgiving.com/DaveHillman – Thank You!