Thousands of runners braved the balmy weather to take part in this year’s London Marathon, and although Olympic hero Mo Farah failed to break records, one Gomersal runner ran her way into the record books.

Lisa Wright, 45, was among scores of runners from the district who pounded the streets of the capital yesterday.

Taking part in the race for the 14th time, Lisa took the opportunity to do something different and decided to run the race dressed as a playing card in the hope of becoming the fastest person to take part in the race dressed as a card!

As the Queen of Hearts, she was flushed with pride when she found out she had gained a place in the book of Guinness World Records with a time of four hours and 23 minutes – breaking the record with seven minutes to spare.

Temperatures in the late-teens made for a balmy 34th London Marathon – as crowd favourite and Olympic gold medalist Mo Farah came home in eighth place for his course debut.

Unbroken sunshine meant the 11C recorded at the start of the race in Greenwich at 10am felt considerably warmer, as racers began the arduous 26.2 mile course through the capital.

Despite being bookies’ favourites for the race, the 31-year-old Farah failed to break into the podium positions, Kenyan world record holder Wilson Kipsang took the title in an unofficial time of 2hrs 04mins and 29secs, a course record, with Farah coming home almost four minutes back.

Mrs Wright took part in the race to raise money for Heart UK and has raised £600 so far, although she still has plenty more donations to collect.

She said: “It was very, very hot, but I raised a lot of money for charity and broke a world record, so it has all been worth it.”

Manjit Peacock, of Keighley, was also dressed up for the race – as comic superhero Wonder Woman. She finished the marathon in four hours and 39 seconds, and her costume even got her a spot on TV coverage of the race.

She was fundraising for Unicef and said: “I was a bit hot, but some of the other people who were dressed up were dressed as furry bananas and so my costume was quite cool really.”

Rob Kellet, of Wibsey, finished the race in five hours, which he said was longer than he had hoped – but he raised about £1,500 for Yorkshire Cancer Research. He said: “I’m looking forward to a few beers and a curry now.” Marc Forrest, 40, of Baildon, finished his first London Marathon just under the four hour mark, and has so far raised around £1,200 for the Alzheimer’s Society, Mind, Stroke Association and Yorkshire Cancer Research.