Fears are increasing for a Brighton Marathon runner who is still on the course after he unwittingly fell down one of Sussex’s now notorious giant potholes.
Roy Green, from East Grinstead, has been treading water in the hole for the last 29 hours, with rescue crews still trying to devise the safest way to get the 37 year old out. Mr Green, who is technically still is competing in his third marathon, is said to be in good spirits although rescuers have said the next 3-4 hours are critical.
Mr Green’s marathon started as well as could be expected before things took a turn for the worse at mile eight, ‘It was all going swimmingly’, he said as he struggled to keep his head above the brown water. ‘I was just through Ovingdean making my way back to Brighton, I had noticed a fair few potholes but I had managed to avoid them. I only looked down for a second to change the song on my ipod and the next think you know I’m balls deep in cold grubby water, I have been trying to haul my self out ever since but the tarmac keeps crumbling away. Initially a few people stopped to try and help but then people just stopped caring. Watching 10,000 people run over your head whilst you freeze your knackers off isn’t much fun’ The poor bastard explained.
Mr Green was running for the RNLI charity and had successfully raised over £1500 for the cause. In a twisted turn of fate it is actually Sussex lifeboat crew who are now conducting his rescue. The Brighton lifeboat station are currently waiting on a specialist winch to free Mr Green, a spokesman for the charity estimates the rescue attempt will have cost well in the ‘tens of thousands’.Traffic remains slow moving in the area as police divert drivers around the incident. The police have also told the public who have come out to take selfies with Mr Green and those who are shouting obscenities, beeping car horns and throwing stuff at him are ‘not helping’.
With some Brighton roads now more pothole than road it is perhaps unsurprising that this years marathon saw a record in pothole related incidents. Earlier in the day two women runners were freed after the becoming ‘wedged’ in a hole on London road, organisers reported 61 broken ankles and many more sprains. A special church service is to be held on Sunday after a spectator dropped more or less the whole of his new pint after failing to notice a pothole on Madeira Drive.
The Brighton Bulletin 