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Team Cox complete Médoc Marathon and raise £16k for drinks charities

Team Cox: ready, steady goMembers of the Team Cox Medoc Marathon running team get ready to help raise money for drinks charities, The Benevolent and Vintners' Foundation, in memory of Michael Cox, including his wife Lynne Cox, second left, and centre, David Cox, his twin brother

The combined efforts of the 12-strong trade team that took part in last weekend's Médoc Marathon in Pauillac , Bordeaux has helped raise £16,000 for the Benevolent drinks charity and Vintners' Foundation.

The team of runners, dubbed Team Cox, were also running in memory of the late Michael Cox, former head of Wines of Chile in the UK, who lost his battle with cancer earlier this year.

The team was led by husband and wife, Peter Richard MW and Susan Barrie, alongside Michael's wife Lynne Cox and included members of the UK and Chilean wine trade including Eduardo Chadwick of Viña Errazuriz.

David Cox, twin brother of Michael and chief executive of the Benevolent, who helped co-ordinate the team's efforts said: "Michael would have been immensely proud of the sheer grit and determination that was demonstrated by all our runners, especially from 30 km onwards, and it reminded us all of the brave way that he fought his battle in the final months. He would also have smiled at the fact that all the runners carried his photograph pinned to their backs as a reminder of why they were there.  I have every respect for our team and am so grateful for all the donors helping The Benevolent and The Vintners' Company."

Team Cox

Not only did the team raise some much needed money for the Benevolent they also all managed to get round the gruelling route with some impressive running times, particularly as some had not run a full marathon before.

The Médoc Marathon is famous for being both a tough race, but also a big carnival with many of the runners in fancy dress enjoying the support of the many wineries and chateaux as they pass along the route.

The fastest runner in the group was Avery's fine wine manager, Richard Dare, who managed to get round in a very impressive 3 hours and 20 minutes and came 81^st out of over 11,000  runners. What was even more impressive was that he ran in an Avery's wine bottle costume and was attempting to break the Guinness World Record for doing so. Unfortunately his costume was deemed to not quite comply with their requirements.

He was followed in by Sebastian O'Keefe, wine buyer from Amazon (formerly of Bibendum) and Handford Wines' Greg Sherwood MW who posted wonderfully impressive times of 3 hours 53 minutes and 3 hours and 54 minutes respectively. 

Lynne Cox was the 36^th fastest female contestant and finished in 3 hours and  56 minutes and was an outstanding 339^th place overall. 

Team Cox's Chilean contingent saw Eduardo Chadwick and Alvaro Arriagada from Wines of Chile both post times for their inaugural marathon of 4 hours  30 minutes but were pipped to the end by Andres Izquierdo from Errazuriz who finished in the top 500 runners at 4 hours and eight minutes.

Richards and Barrie came in together in 4 hours and 55 minutes, while Andrew Shaw from Bibendum Wine and Vicky Thompson from Handford Wines both crossed the finishing line in 5 hours 31 minutes and  5 hours 44 minutes respectively.  

David Cox added:  A heart felt thanks must go to Henri Lurton at Château Brane-Cantenac who generously hosted our team. Fittingly it was the contribution of 'Team Cox', together with the fact that the race winner came from the winery that allowed Château Brane-Cantenac to take 1^st place in the team positions.

Peter Richards said after the race:  "We are in equal measure delighted and exhausted!  When we originally had the idea to launch this madcap endeavour, we never dreamed we could raise this much money nor have so many brilliant people help us along the way.  We were so proud to be part of Team Cox. Here's to Michael!  And we couldn't possibly comment about the next idea being a Danceathon...'

Donations are still possible via the Team Cox JustGiving site https://www.justgiving.com/teams/teamcox

Co-organisers of Team Cox fittingly cross the line together in under five hours

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