Breaking a world record while running in a panda costume. Raising over £1,000 for charity. Even getting a tweet of congratulations from Paula Radcliffe. Truly, days don’t get much better than this.

My London marathon morning started surreally as I sat in a tent near Greenwich, lending duct tape to a post box, safety pins to a doctor in scrubs and discussing handcuffing strategies with a husband and wife. This was not an average race start. All the aspirational Guinness World Record chasers start together, so at 9am I also found myself posing for photos next to a rhino, a tent and a man in ski boots.

I was, in truth, extremely nervous. I spent the day before tweaking my costume to stop the panda head from wobbling and reducing my field of vision from narrow to non-existent. Nothing seemed to work, with the result that I ran the entire race with a roll of duct tape round my paw in case of emergencies.

Kate Carter during her training for the marathon. Photograph: Courtesy of Kate Carter

But within minutes of the start, it was clear this was going to be an amazing experience. Constant cries of “Go panda!” echoed on even the few quiet bits of the course. It also soon became obvious that my panda head was turning into a raging furnace.

I tried to compensate by drinking more water and surfing the enormous crowd support. Other runners, too, cheered me on, and through the narrow gap in my panda head, I could see the looks of astonishment on the faces of kids. Particularly the very small ones, who looked slightly suspicious, like they weren’t sure if I was a runner masquerading as a panda or the other way round.

There were also a lot of calls of “Go Pandaboy!” or “Go panda man!” Mind you, the difficulty of correctly identifying a panda’s gender may explain a lot about their mating habits.

The last few miles of a marathon are usually a painful slog, but this time they were the easiest. Running in costume is like being one of the stars of the show – everyone is willing you on. I even did a bit of showboating, high-fiving kids and blowing kisses to the crowd, before finally crossing the line, to be greeted by the Guinness team who told me that my time of 3:48:32 had broken the old record for the title of fastest marathon in a full body costume (female) by 25 minutes.

With that I finally removed my panda head – to breathe in the blissful cool air and return to my normal human self. This, though, was a magical day that I won’t forget in a hurry.

https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/lovethepandas