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| | Friday, 5 April, 2002, 13:48 GMT 14:48 UK Charlie hits the ground running BBC Sport Online's Mike Burnett talks to celebrity gardener Charlie Dimmock as she swaps trowel for tracksuit in the London Marathon. It is clear from BBC1's gardening programme Ground Force that Charlie Dimmock likes her water features. But on 14 April, she will be running alongside the grandest water feature of them all, the River Thames. This year, the bubbly presenter joins 32,000 other runners for the gruelling 26.2 mile slog around London. It may seem a strange way to spend a Sunday, but for Charlie, who will be running for Team Flora, it was going to happen sooner or later.
"It's something I've considered in the past, but haven't had the time to put the training in," she said. "But this year I did have the time and I got approached by Flora to help them promote a healthier heart." There may be more 'athletic' role-models around, but Charlie was chosen exactly because she was no Zola Budd. "They sort of chose me because I'm generally known as not being overly sporty and needing to lose a few pounds and increasing my heart health, so people would identify with me," she explained. "I suppose it's a back-handed compliment in some ways." It will be quite a change to see Charlie knee-deep in sweat rather than muck and her legion of fans will, no doubt, enjoy seeing her flowing ginger locks bounce up and down as she paces through the streets of London. But these will be the only things jangling about on 14 April because the 35-year-old, known for her lack of supportive underwear, will be donning a sports bra.
"I'm not going through that pain thank you." Clearly, Charlie has been taking her training seriously, and feels confident that she will last the distance, thanks to good advice from her trainers. But it has not always been that way and the celebrity gardener, who was awarded Redhead of the Year in 2000, still remembers the pain of her early outings in training. "My first run almost killed me - I don't know how far but it was only a tiny distance, about a mile and a half or two miles." Now, after several months of training, Charlie has lost half a stone in weight and looks primed to take on the London challenge. "Hopefully I'll get round and won't feel too done in." | |
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