A TOUCHING video captures the moment a London marathon runner detours from the course to greet his waiting girlfriend.
Megan Oliver had travelled down to the capital to cheer on her boyfriend Oscar Wallis in his first run-out at the London marathon on Sunday.
The 26-year-old from Liverpool, Merseyside worried that she might have missed Oscar after initially arriving at Bermondsey, southeast London before re-planning her vantage point based on his time.
After two tube journeys, English tutor Megan arrived with Oscar’s parents at London Bridge and took their spot to try and see him running the final mile of the marathon.
The heart-warming clip opens as Oscar, 26, runs past the Houses of Parliament, lifting his cap to check if he is indeed seeing his girlfriend.
Oscar’s dad can then be heard saying: “That’s not him is it?”
Megan excitedly replies: “Yes, it is.”
Megan films on as Oscar shows a surprising burst of energy to leap over the taped barricade with just one mile remaining.
Oscar, dressed all in black, jogs past two policemen with a smile on his face as he sees Megan and quickly embraces her and kisses her twice.
His dad then encourages his son, commenting: “You’re doing great pal, love it.”
He then raises a fist to the crowd before spinning round and running under the tape which is held up by a kind steward in a poncho.
The keen runner then disappears into the crowd of bobbing heads as Megan offers an encouraging shout of “Go Osc”.
Megan shared the touching video to social media on Monday, writing: “Get yourself a boyfriend that swerves the marathon 25 miles in just to give you a hug.”
The post received more than 56,000 likes with over a hundred comments from people who were touched by the heartwarming clip.
Demmie Jones said: “I couldn’t even get my man to jump over a puddle for me.”
Katie Simpson said: “How did he jump over that after running 25 miles, I would be dying. So cute.”
Hannah Quinn said: “The cutest thing I’ve ever seen, crying at the marathon again.”
Ally Clarke said: “The smile on his face says it all.”
Indiannie Jones joked: “My boyfriend swerved the entire thing to spend the day with me.”
Speaking today, Megan said: “I didn’t think we’d have a good chance of spotting him, initially I travelled to Bermondsey and met up with his parents.
“We’d heard it was a good place to spot runners, turns out when we had arrived there we’d just missed him on his 12th mile.
“We then worked out his pace and where we could get to be able to see him run, so we quickly got two tubes over to London Bridge in the hope we’d catch him near Big Ben.
“We knew based on his pace he’d have passed by in the next 40 minutes so we got a spot and waited to see if we could spot him.
“It was all a bit of a blur but I was ecstatic, I was so pleased we’d been able to spot him as we were getting quite worried about not being able to see him run.
“I was in a bit of shock that he looked so well and full of energy 25 miles in.”
The 2023 London marathon broke records for the most finishers with over 48,000, as competitors ranged in age from 18 to 90.
