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From the organiser's website:

Greater Manchester Marathon statement about the baggage area

We, the organisers of the Greater Manchester Marathon, would like to make a statement to all the runners apologising for the baggage area.

We want to issue an official apology about the baggage area at the Greater Manchester Marathon 2012 and apologise hugely to all our runners who experienced issues with their baggage drop off or retrieval. We understand how important this area is and after investigation into what happened we have instantly put amendments in place for the 2013 race.

Although some elements of the baggage area disruption were beyond our control we take full responsibility for correction of the system for the 2013 race.

We have the remaining bags that we have taken from the race finish and shall be posting these to runners as soon as possible. Also, if you have any individual items missing please let us know [b]via email[/b] This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it as all lost property left on site was collected.

We understand the harsh weather conditions added to the discomfort of the waiting time for baggage drop off or retrieval and this highlighted further that a quicker system needs to be in place no matter what the weather conditions but particularly for speed in unusual ones.

I wonder why they can't take full responsibility?

Last night I stood next to the ex-England and Middlesex fast bowler Angus Fraser, who's running the VLM. He is, as they say, a big unit. He's about 6ft 5in, and solidly built with - sorry Gus - a couple of chins and a couple of bellies. Maybe 17, 18 stone or more?

He's obviously a very strong man - although he's now 46 - but that's a considerable bulk to drag round a marathon.

I know Guinness do some ridiculous marathon records, but is there one for the heaviest person who's run one (or most of one - not walked)? Any other heavyweights out there who've managed it?

Both my real first name and surname are unusual and till a few years ago it was mostly me on the first few pages of google, with my work with a charity and my running. Then along came an Olympic marathoner / national champ with the same name (though different sex) who's everywhere and pushed me down to page 1000.

 Changing one letter of my name (spelling it in the usual way) and there's a Nobel Prize-winning economist, which cause great hilarity when I went to university to do economics.