Young British Karting star Will Dendy was told running the 26.2 miles of the 2009 London Marathon in a race suit and helmet was impossible! But Will Dendy knows that anything is possible if you put your mind to it.

Running for The Children's Trust, and raising over £500, he completed the marathon in 4:54 hours despite suffering from cramps, and near heat exhaustion. It was an absolutely incredible achievement! He had this to say - "I decided to do the London Marathon for the Children's Trust, which is the official charity of the Marathon this year, and decided to do it in my race gear to hopefully raise more money. I was told by some ex-SAS guys that if I ran in my race suit and helmet I would get heat stroke after 5 miles, but this goes to show that anything is possible if you put your mind to it.

It was mentally one of the hardest things I've ever done, since it was 22 degrees on the outside, and I had cramps for the last 13 miles. I will compete again in 2010 without my gear on and run it in under 3 hours.
 
The crowds provide such encouragement, clapping and cheering 'C'MON STIG' and "Some say he runs marathons". I'd also like to thank everyone who has donated to the Children's Trust so far!"
 
Will is accustomed to challenging the impossible as he prepares to race in the MSA British Karting Championship on the 8-10th May despite not having the large financial backing that is so common in the highest levels of karting. Racing the VRK kart chassis partnered with Iztech Kart Seats what lessons has Will learnt from his Marathon achievement that can be applied in KF1?
 
"I've always believed that if you put your mind to something, anything is possible and completing the marathon dressed as I was just proves that point even more. People said for me to do TKM Super 1 would be impossible and I did it anyway. It was the same with the Marathon. Now KF1 will be my next big challenge!"
 
Donations are still being accepted for Will Dendy's Marathon achievement. Here is his JustGiving.com site - www.justgiving.com/willdendy.
 
Keep up to date with Will Dendy on his official website at www.willdendy.com

Photographs courtesy of Julian Mason (running) and Alan Dove (racing).

After missing out on the 2008 London Marathon due to his shin-splints injury, Will has managed to secure a Golden Bond place with Children's charity 'The Children's Trust' based in Tadworth. Will is hoping to raise as much as possible for the charity and aims to complete the 26.2 mile race in around 5 hours if he wears his race gear.

 Please donate directly to The Children's Trust via http://www.justgiving.com/willdendy

Will said, "I've been a keen runner for a long time, and was dissapointed not to race in 2008 but I'm delighted to get the chance in 2009! I hope to run the race in my Race suit to raise a bit of extra cash" This is what Will will look like at the start line.

On August 8th-10th at Whilton Mill in Northamptonshire Will participated in the TKM Festival, a televised event with over 150 drivers. Will got back late Thursday night after a day of KF1 in Larkhallm to run with the Dave Litchfield team.

On Friday Alan Dove was helping out for a day of testing, which fortunately stayed dry. On Saturday the rain came down, which benefited Will because h was unable to afford new slick tyres for race day. Qualifying went well with El Bandito setting pole position immediately and getting faster as the soaking wet session progressed. The Tonykart chassis and setup help from Dave and Nick Jepson was superb in the wet and meant Will took pole overall, beating the other 84 TKM Extreme drivers.

The 1st heat remained wet and saw Dendy line up 5th on the grid. After a battle for a few laps with various drivers Will set out to catch the leader, but was unable due to an experimentation with high tyre pressures, but 2nd was a good result to begin the heats. Dendy began the second heat 15th place in drying conditions, and didn't have the correct tyres and could only manage 9th at the flag.

Will was gridded 16th for heat 3 and as the drivers headed out on the warm up lap the rain came down, meaning they were all driving in the wet on slicks! Once up to 5th, Will's relative inexperience showed as he made a mistake, putting him down to 18th.

The poor 3rd heat meant Will lined up for the 'Elite' final 21st, and this proved to be a bad place to start as Ryan Cole, Will and Randall Lynn all came off worst on the 1stlap carnage. For the main final will started 33rd and was through to 20th quickly. Just as the kart started to come on Will was taken out of approximately 15th place on lap 9, after setting a 48.8, the same time as the eventual winner who was on brand new tyres.

Timed Qualifying - 1st

Heat 1 - 2nd

Heat 2 - 9th

Heat 3 - 1st

Elite Pre-Final - DNF

Elite Final - DNF

Will and the team have created a new and totally unique way of raising cash for his 2009 racing campaign named 'Race your Face'

The new scheme allows individuals and companies to buy a passport photo (45mm x 35mm) sized 'block' on the kart for £10. People can put anything from a photo of themselves and their family to their pet or a logo! This also means that companies who want a larger space on the kart can buy more blocks!

The team are also giving a brand new set of slicks to the driver who comes up with the most amusin/most original 'block'! This is your chance to win a hundred quids worth of Karting gear for getting one up on your mates!

Included in the £10 for each block, is a photo of your photo on the kart and updates on how Will's 2009 season is progressing!

There will be a total of 400 spaces on the kart and one thing is for sure, it will look pretty cool once full!

If you are interested in having your face or logo plastered on the kart, check out http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=180261103518 or please send details to This e-mail address is being protected from spambots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it of how many blocks you would like to buy, your name and address (so we can send you a photo of your block on the kart.) Don't forget to attach your photo too!

More info very soon!