A Guy Runs London Marathon While Blind-Tasting 25 Wines For Charity

If you thought running 26.2 miles seemed like one heck of a chore, how about doing it while trying to identify a series of wines by their vintage and grape varietal as one guy did in London this past weekend?

52-year-old Tom Gilbey is in better shape than most of us and took part in the London Marathon. However, while most other runners were busy taping their nipples, Tom was brushing up on his extensive wine knowledge and instead of worrying about his legs he was examining which wines had them.

That's right. As if running a marathon wasn't impressive enough, Tom's got himself a hell of a palate and is a wine connoisseur.

So, he combined these two things to raise over £14,000 (just under $17,500) for charity and this was documented in a TikTok video set to the "Yakety Sax."

Somewhere, in the great beyond, Benny Hill is nodding his approval…

Check it out and prepare to be impressed:

For some reason, people who can do this kind of thing amaze me. I don't know why this is. I could see someone pull a death-defying stunt and I'd be like, "…cool," but when someone takes a swig of wine and can tell you that it's a 2018 Pinot Noir from Burgundy, that blows my mind.

And he did it with runners' cotton mouth to boot!

I'm not even a big wine guy. Sure, I like a robust cabernet as much as the next guy, but I don't discriminate. Give me a bottle of Trader Joe's Two-Buck Chuck all day. All I know is what tastes alright to me. I couldn't tell you where it's from or what vintage it is unless I snuck a peek at the label while no one was looking. 

So, sommeliers like Tom Gilbey blow my mind, and he did a hell of a job on this challenge.

Tom tasted 25 wines and nailed 21 of them on the money.

Now, the big question: did he drink them to give himself a nice wine buzz to go with that runners' high?

"If they were good, I might swallow it and if they were bad, they went on the road," he told BBC News.

Gilbey's son was the one who picked the wines and organized the stunt.

"He somehow managed to stash quite a few of the good wines in at the beginning, which lulled me into a false sense of security.

"There was a real trio of bad 'uns, and then around a similar point I was overtaken by a fridge," he said, referring to a guy who ran with a fridge strapped to his back and then proposed to his lady (seriously; this London Marathon sounds like a good time). 

"So that was sad."

The money Tom raised will go to the Sobell House Hospice Charity.