There'll be celebrations all round on the finish line for Sunday's London Marathon, but some will have more to celebrate than others.

Credit: The London Marathon

Whilst most runners will be focusing on their race times during Sunday’s London Marathon, one runner from Imperial will be marking his own personal milestone as he ties the knot midway through the 26.2 mile course.

Paul Elliott, a HR Adviser in the College's Faculty of Natural Sciences, and his partner Laura Harvey are pausing at the 12.5 mile mark to exchange vows in front of nearly 100 guests at a 45 minute ceremony held near St Katharine Docks.

The couple, who have so far raised more than £6,000 for Cancer research UK from people sponsoring their Marathon nuptials, will then continue with the 26.2 mile race, passing their guests a second time at 21 miles before crossing the finish line together at Buckingham Palace. The pair will then be re-joining their guests at their wedding reception to celebrate.

We caught up with Paul to find out more about his unusual wedding plans.

Whose idea was it to get married in such an unusual way?

I think it was mine. We knew we didn’t want a traditional wedding, and I had always wanted to run the London Marathon, so it seemed like a good idea to combine the two! My partner has run it before, and always said she would never do it again. I’ve managed to convince her to come out of retirement just this once for the occasion.

We’re raising money for Cancer Research UK, which is a charity very close to my heart as my father died from bowel cancer in 1995. As he can’t be at the wedding, it feels very fitting to do this in his memory.

What did your guests think?

They all thought we were a bit mad, but they know we’re really into sport so I don’t think they were too shocked. The bridesmaids and groomsmen felt that they’d be more use to us at the venue rather than the course, and elected not accompany us for the race. I can’t say I blame them!

Will you both be wearing wedding traditional attire?

Not quite. Laura has adapted running gear to look like wedding attire. She’s wearing a white tennis dress and a veil, and I’m wearing a suit jacket and black leggings.

Was your proposal equally as creative?

I enlisted the help of a caricaturist in Leicester square for that. I’d planned it all out with him in advance – I asked him to draw Laura and me with a speech bubble coming from my face saying “Will you marry me?”

What I failed to consider was that people like to stop and watch artists at work. Before long we had a crowd of excited people gathering around who were watching the caricature develop and had guessed what was going on. I really thought someone was going to let the cat out of the bag, but fortunately they didn’t. I pulled the ring out as the artist turned around the drawing. Fortunately she said yes.

Are you doing anything equally as adventurous for your honeymoon?

No crazy ideas - we’re intending to have some well-earned rest. We’re spending a few days in Brighton first, and we specifically chose a hotel with a hot tub so we can recuperate and ease our muscles! Then we’re heading out to the Bahamas for a week.

Sponsor Paul and Laura