Timber industry stalwart Geoff Rhodes has the honour of being among the first people to cross the finish line in the Olympic Park stadium.
Mr Rhodes was lucky to be one of the 5,000 people who took part in a five-mile run around the Olympic Park last Saturday, taking in landmarks such as the western red cedar-clad velodrome and the aquatics centre, before finishing in the Olympic stadium.
“Apart from the western red cedar cladding on the velodrome, which looked great, I was very aware as I ran of the complicated but very effective OSB and birch plywood roof structure in that particular building, the large volume of MDF panels used in the internal part of the Olympic stadium itself, the timber roof of the aquatics centre and also the huge amounts of timber to be seen in the decking and landscaped areas throughout the Olympic Park – all legal sustainable and certified – just as it should be,” said Mr Rhodes.
The event was organised by the National Lottery and participants were chosen at random from almost 43,000 entrants.
Mr Rhodes, who thanked his team of supporters for helping him train for the event, finished in a time of 53 mins 15 seconds.
