by Dan Jones, 12th May 2023
Spring has sprung and brought with it strange goings on at running clubs up and down the country. Stairs have become the equivalent of Mount Everest and Strava is a desolate wasteland, punctuated by the odd ‘back on the horse jog’ – yes, jog, not run! The only clue as to what’s going on is the array of new T-shirts at club night (or trees being planted) and the constant jangling of medals: it’s marathon season!
As every year, a great range of members have completed the 26.2 miles across a myriad of races. After trawling through Strava, Power Of Ten and various race result pages, I’ve tried to compile a list of Great Western Runners who’ve tackled marathons this spring – apologies if I’ve missed you!
Things started off in March with Steve Speak running the Barcelona marathon – the second time he’s done this and from his Strava comments it’s a great option for an early spring marathon.
April was much busier! At the start of the month, Paul Craddy ran a PB at Brighton, while Kelly Dicks and John Cox were busy running the Great Welsh Marathon. The correct verb for Kelly should be ‘winning’ as she put in another impressive sub-3 performance and finished well ahead of the second lady – setting a high bar for the rest of us to aspire to.
A few weeks later, it was the turn of Newport, Manchester, Rotterdam and Boston marathons. James West was the only GWR runner making the most of a flat course in the Netherlands to run a cracking new PB. A few more of us made the journey over the bridge to south Wales. Janine Cooke, Katy Sutcliffe, Thibault Poujol, Richard Wheeler, Andy Holliday and Andrew Tipper all enjoyed the lack of elevation and great conditions to run PBs. They were also joined by Sam Wilson, James O’Hara and Dan Jones. With 6/9 runners recording PBs, Newport seems to be a the best local option for a fast spring marathon. Up in Manchester, Oliver Feighan kept up the PB theme, covering the 26.2 miles faster than ever before. On the Monday was the legendary Boston marathon. Kate Matheson and Tim Wildman both made the trip over the pond to run the world’s oldest marathon race – by all accounts an amazing experience.
The following weekend we had runners at at least 3 different events: Blackpool, Vienna and, of course, London. Starting up north, John Hargreaves ran along the seafront and past the tower quicker than anyone else in his category to be the 1st V70 male. Meanwhile Clare Meraz was claiming another PB (how many is that now?) running around the historic streets of Vienna. Not only did this event take in the route of Kipchoge’s sub-2 marathon, but it also broke the world record for the longest picture painted by runners! Apparently competitors could dip a brush in paint as they hit the 16km mark and paint two 20m banners!
I’m sure there were a plethora of world records broken in London too. The results aren’t on Power of Ten yet, but at least 10 Great Western Runners completed the iconic route from Greenwich to The Mall. Sarah Ackroyd, Laurence Caird (first marathon), Alice Doggrell, Will Hillier, Mel Little, Callum Moore (10 second PB), Christopher Newby, Stephen O’Halloran, Andrew Smith and Marco del Wattsio (Mark Watts) all represented the club and splashed their way around a soggy London.
Congratulations to all those who have run marathons this spring. Hopefully it’s inspired* a few of us to start training for autumn races or set our sights on a marathon next year. Whether it’s your first or 100th, it’s an incredible achievement and something we should all be rightly proud of!
*the author takes no responsibility for the lack of inspiration that will inevitably occur between miles 18-23 of any marathons you enter!
