This episode of Run Pod is sponsored by M&S, where you can shop all your favourite sportswear brands.

Hello there and welcome to RunPod, the Run Club of the podcast world. I'm Jenny Faulkner and it is

race season. This coming weekend there are tons of events, the Paris Marathon, Manchester Marathon,

Redding Half and London landmarks half. Next weekend, we've got even more. There's Q the Run,

Brighton Marathon weekend. I mean, there are a ton of races. And there is a good chance that if you're

listening now, you might be running one. And even if you're not running, there's nothing more inspiring than seeing other people cross the finish line and hearing about their running journey.

And someone who is here to share theirs ahead of this Sunday's London landmarks half marathon is someone who's taken on the challenge of running in costume, I hear.

It is presenter, author,

Runner and Run Pod Run Club regular. I'll say Bassos Alexander. Hello there. Hello, Jenny. Nice

to hear from you. Oh, it's nice to have you back on Run Pod. Thank you so much for coming and for a chat.

Well, I'm very much looking forward to, well, A, to our chat and B

to Sunday morning, because I'm a, I'm a relative newbie to running races in fancy dress.

London, the London Marathon last October. I was just going to run it for a P.B or for as close to a Peeb as

I could up until the Friday morning before the race.

And then we got a text from somebody who was running it in a massive minion outfit on the show,

on the breakfast show, on Virgin Radio on Friday morning.

And we loved the sort of the cut of his text jib and called him and got him on the air.

And then he ambushed me on air and said, look, I've got a spare minion.

Do you fancy it?

And so I thought, yes, I do fancy.

Why would you say no to running the London Marathon as a minion?

So with literally, with zero preparation, the only time I'd worn the costume previously was to walk into a restaurant

...