I was first across the line in the London Marathon

What’s something most people don’t know about you?

I’ve run the race a few times

Of course I’ve never won!

But strangely first to cross the line

Is something I can claim.

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The race I want to tell you of

Was nineteen ninety three

Eamon Martin won it

So he’s famouser than me.

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I didn’t run the race that year

Was only helping out.

They started twenty five thousand

So needed lots of help.

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We were finish marshalls

Stationed on the bridge.

In the days before the chip

Complicated stuff.

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The runners all had bar codes

The ‘pluckers’ would strip off.

Put a hand upon a chest

And gently rip it off.

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Then there’d be the ‘spindlers‘

Who put them on big spools

Then they’d be collected

And matched up with the watch.

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So the pluckers and the spindlers

Had their different jobs

But we were ‘separators’

What would be our task?

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We took them through the funnels

We’d each take through a batch

Get them to the pluckers

Who’d rip the bar codes off.

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We’d hand over our batch card

And then go running back

‘Well done, well done,keep moving’

Was what we’d always shout.

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A complicated business

We had to get it right

So of course we’d practice

Which is where I made my mark.

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Before the race was started

We had a quick run through

So all the separators

jogged towards the line.

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I was first to get there

So hand on heart can say

That year’s London Marathon.

I was first across the line.