Luton Marathon - 6th December
After being called off last year, this year's Marathon went ahead as scheduled and although the journey to Luton was in torrential rain, fortunately it subsided to leave a dry but windy day for the race.
There were 693 finishers in the main marathon event and as always seems to be the case on this course, the runners had to contend with strong headwinds for about 2 miles on each of the 3 laps making it a pretty demanding race. However, fortunately all the Bourton runners finished in one piece (just about!) with the day belonging to Alistair Lockey for his superb run of 2:40:11 to take 4th place overall and 1st V40 at the expense of a massive blister on the back of his heel.
Next to finish was Steve Edwards in 3:08:49 to take 41st place and happy to complete his 34th and final marathon of the year in which he's averaged 3hrs 9min for each one. Then came Chris Hartley with a solid run of 3:14:53 to take 71st place with Ian Shoemark who was running with Chris on the first lap but then dropped back to finish in 3:31:26 for 141st place. John Gibson ran with Rachel Griffin, who found the conditions tough on her asthma; Rachel finished in 4:35:56 with John a second behind. Well done Rachel for hanging-in there.
English Schools Cross-Country County Championships
The Junior members of the club did Bourton proud as each of them qualified for the next round of the English Schools Cross Country at Newent in the County Championships. They now head to Cardiff to represent Gloucestershire in the Inter Counties. Corrigan Cox finished 1st in the Junior girls, Connor Shoemark 12th Inter Boy, Beth Pudifoot 2nd, Beth Wynn 5th and Millie Mather 11th in the Inter Girls, Lewis Gray 5th and James Outhwaite 11th in the Senior Boys and Ellie Pudifoot 4th in the Senior Girls.
Lanzarote Marathon 29th November
This was a marathon Steve Edwards had never run before and it was quite a late decision to go over and do it, however as it fell on his birthday weekend they thought it would be a nice treat with the opportunity to grab some winter sun. Organised by Club La Santa, this is a flat 4 lap course along the sea front of the capital town Arrecife, giving runners the opportunity to chose between running a quarter, half or full marathon.
On race day it was much warmer than Steve thought it would be with temperatures reaching the mid 70's before they'd even started, so he decided to set off a little steadier than normal. It had certainly been a long time since he'd run a marathon in this heat and a bit of a shock from what we have been used to back home! However, he ended up running the first quarter in just under 46 minutes and then reaching halfway in just over 1:31 which was much faster than Steve had planned. The heat was beginning to take its toll and this reflected in lap 3 which was to be his slowest taking well over 47 minutes. Steve wasn't feeling the best as he made the turn to complete the final lap but when Teresa shouted that he was lying in 18th place and gaining on the runner in front, it helped to spur him on a little. As He passed that runner who was now walking, he realised that one or two others in front might actually be feeling worse than him and this thought gave him the little kick he needed to dig deeper and push on. In the end Steve passed another 3 runners to finish 2nd V45 and 14th place overall with a time of 3:04:30, certainly not what he expected, so was very pleased to record yet another sub 3:05.
Report Highlights
Alistair Lockey finishes 4th at Luton and was 1st man over 40 - 2:40:11
Steve Edwards completes his 34th and final marathon of the year - averaging 3hrs 9min.
The Luton winning time was the fastest seen in recent years, 2:26:14 (Neil Renault of Long Eaton RC), close to Den's course record but not close enough!
Steve's big target is another step nearer:
Bourton's younger runners all performed exceptionally well at English Schools Cross Country.
Steve & Teresa Edwards get away for a sunny break at Lanzarote Marathon.
Other reports may be found on our recent race reports page.