The magic number is … 20 miles

7 March 2016 - By Marc Underdown

I think it was De La Soul who sang that three was the magic number. Well for this weekend at least, it seems that it was all about the number 20. A classic part of spring marathon training is tackling a 20 mile race, and on Sunday we had our runners spread across three different 20 milers.

Unsurprisingly the bulk of our runners were at the Essex 20, which incorporates the Essex Championships. The cold bright conditions made for some quick running and there were some great times across our runners. Many were tackling their first 20 mile race, and should take confidence and positives into translating their performance to the full 26.2 miles. Brigid Wallen continues to excel and not only did she win the silver county medal for her age category (in which she is competing against runners more than five years younger), but she also lowered her own club record by over four minutes.

There seems to be so many notable performances that it’s hard to know which ones to highlight. I’m aware that Bill and Anita both bettered their previous best for the distance, and there may be others. It also looks like there was some great teamwork by Jo and Mike, and Emma and Tracey.  All the results are in the table below. Well done all of you.

Paul Nicholls is a well-known race horse trainer in National Hunt racing. Well at the Milton Keynes 20, our very own Paul Nicholls had his own bit of Hunt racing against David and Vicky. Despite David finishing a few seconds ahead on the gun time, Paul must have started a little further back, so his chip time of 2:31:28 was just ahead of David’s 2:31:42. Vicky came in just behind the gents in a fabulous 2:34:05. These are all great times.

Finally Sean Darney went for the Thames Riverside 20 which from what I can gather is mostly run on the towpath to the side of the river, so he probably had the best views from the weekend. He finished in a very creditable time of 2:34:47.

Essex 20 times