Leeds United's greatest distance covered as Wembley journey ends in legend meeting
Neither Brenden Aaronson nor Ethan Ampadu could lay claim to the greatest distance covered on Sunday at Wembley, that honour surely went to Leeds United fan Josh Maskill.
The FA Cup semi-final didn't factor in the 31-year-old's thinking when he entered the ballot for this year's London Marathon and who could blame him? Daniel Farke continually said throughout the Whites' run that it wasn't realistic for the club to win the competition and few, if any, expected their run to go all the way to Wembley and the final four. But winning through to the quarter-finals and drawing fellow relegation battlers West Ham opened up the possibility of a big day out, or in Josh's case an even bigger day out.
"I didn't have a single thought about the FA Cup when I entered the ballot," he told the YEP. "Just before West Ham I looked at the dates and then I thought it's the same weekend. But then I was checking the kick-off times of last year, when I think the Sunday game was 4.30pm. Once we got Chelsea I thought there was no way that would be Saturday, the police would get involved and make it the Sunday. And when they said it was going to kick off at 3pm I thought 'I've got a lot of running and rushing around here.'”
Where many of the London Marathon entrants are thinking no further ahead than the finish line, or even simply the next step, Josh's day and his journey were far from complete at the 26-mile mark. The Farnley man, who works in a children's secure home as a residential practitioner, was one of the lucky 34,000 Leeds fans to get their hands on a ticket for Wembley to see the Whites take on Chelsea.
"The marathon starts at nine," he said. "You have different waves, depending on what time you put that's what wave you get. So I started at seven minutes past 10 and then I think I finished around about two-ish, or maybe just after. So I had to go to find Green Park Station, and then get to Wembley Way, and then rush to the ground.
"I had no choice [but to run as quickly as possible]. I wanted to run quicker, but obviously with the heat and obviously the wave I put myself in, it was quite hard getting around people, so I just thought, 'just enjoy it, and then just rush to Wembley, and whatever will be, will be.'"
Josh, roared on by his parents, uncle and cousins, completed the marathon in 3:47 and then he raced the clock to get to the ground, with a hero's reception all the way there. He arrived in his seat just after the game had kicked off, somehow managing to beat his family members to Wembley.
"Because you've got the medal and everything you've got people clapping you all all the way, when you're going down escalators. And then when I got to Wembley, the amount of people that spoke to me, saying 'fair play' and congratulating me, it was really nice. I arrived about two minutes after three."
As can often be the case, the football threatened to spoil a good day out when Leeds were beaten. But it was a day Josh won't forget in a hurry.
"It'll stay with me forever," he said. "It'd have been nice, obviously, if we'd won but I'll never forget the day and everything, it was just amazing. Even the weather. And then we went to the pub after the game and Eddie Gray came in, so we got photos, my little cousin got his programme signed. It was just incredible."