This is the week that was... The London Marathon!
Race reports!
Ok, hands up if you wish you lived in a bungalow?
The weekend was mostly about Marathons, so no better place to start than Estonia, yes Estonia! Population 1.3 million and a lone Brit, our very own Matthew Ma, who booked a cultural holiday to Tartu and took part in their annual marathon and got himself 28th place in a time of 2hr 55 minutes. Another outstanding result, enjoy the rest of your holiday Matthew.
Up in Scotland Jen Garner, Mike Garner, William Burchell and James Bassil completed the long awaited Loch Ness marathon. All four had a brilliant race for different reasons. For Jen it was a stunning 64 minute PB on her previous marathons. I’m sure you’ll all agree that is a massive improvement and a great reward for all the hard work that Jen has been putting in over the past year. For Will it was his debut marathon and a 4 hour 25 time was the reward for all the training he’s been putting in, well done Will. The Loch Ness marathon is a well respected PB course in a stunning location. James and Mike both battled through ongoing injuries to get to the finish line in 4:18 and 5:51 respectively. Well done all of you!
Before I talk about the achievements of our runners at the Virgin London Marathon on Sunday, it would be amiss of me to mention the wonderful Christine Ayres, whose training runs with the boys over the past few months have certainly inspired me. Christine had to pull out of the London marathon on Saturday following a gardening injury which fractured 2 ribs. This injury has also stopped Christine representing England at the York marathon and also in an upcoming swimming event. We all wish you a speedy recovery Christine.
Of course, with any event, it wouldn’t work without the help of an army of volunteers and once again LFR did a great job at mile 21. Tracy Cardno and her team were suitably kitted out in VLM branded gear and did an amazing job of marshalling members of the public and seeing the runners were supported along the way. Thank you ALL!
We had 9 runners take part in the 2021 VLM, all of whom have put in 100’s if not 1,000’s of training miles over the past year and longer, to be ready and that training certainly paid off. With nearly identical times, Katy Garnham-Lee and Elle Laird led the team across the finish line with great sub 4 hour times. Separated by less than 20 minutes were Adam Carter, Lindsey Rigby and Steve Lymbery, all safely home in under 5 hours. Lynda Peacock, Jo Secker, Lesley Wes Barnard and Helen Crossland who all regularly complete marathons and ultra events also completed VLM 2021. Well done to you all. I hope you are all enjoying some well deserved rest days.
As the 2020 event was replaced with a virtual event due to Covid, the London Marathon organisers once again organised a virtual event this year so so-much needed money could get back to the charities. Our very own Stephen Moore and Vicky Green took part in the virtual event and I was lucky enough to see both of them pounding the streets of Leighton Buzzard early on Sunday Morning. I can only imagine how hard that must be without the big event crowd support, well done both!
Another of our team Martin Addrison was also racing on Sunday. He completed the Rochdale half marathon in a great time with a member of the family. Martin only completed Brighton Marathon a few weeks ago! Great going Martin.
parkrun day!
It wouldn’t be a LFR newsletter without a reference to the weekend’s parkruns, where we had 55 runners out running at venues far and wide. Dougie was busy celebrating his first sub 22 minute parkrun after 4 years of trying. This PB was on one of his tourist runs in Brierley Forest. At Rushmere we had an amazing 30 runners turn out, 10 of whom were on Emily’s parkrun train from HQ, which took in a run to Rushmere, the parkrun itself and run back to town. There were plenty of course PB’s at Rushmere with VC Andy Stocks knocking 18 minutes off his first attempt a few weeks ago. My standout run from Saturday though goes to Graham Cooper who completed the 10 mile club run, then did it all over again to turn it into a 20 miles training run, brilliant running. Megan Francis and Andy Griggs were both tourists at other parkruns where they also grabbed some great PBs! Way to go team 🙂