VLM results

24 April 2017 - By Marc Underdown

24 hours on, I don’t doubt that our runners who completed the London marathon yesterday have a few aches and pains to deal with. In time these aches will ease and their bodies will get back to normal, but the memories of their achievements will stay fresh for much longer.

The London marathon is 26.2 miles long, the same as all of the other marathons around, but there is something special about it. I don’t know if it’s the history of the event, the landmarks along the way, the television coverage, the number of runners, spectators, or indeed anything else, but I’m sure that all those running or watching yesterday will have been inspired by what they saw.

As a club we can be very proud of what our runners achieved. They all have their own stories – the reason they were running, the targets they had a mind, whether it was their first or an attempt at lowering their PB, and how much money they have raised. Some had good build ups to the event, others had to overcome many difficulties just to make the start line. For a few, everything came together and they met or exceeded their target. Others went through the mill, but all made it to the finish line safely.

Our first runner back was Heydon. I was among many nervously tracking his progress on his attempt at breaking the 3hr mark. At the 40km mark, his prediction had drifted back to exactly 3:00:00, but thankfully he found a few seconds in the last 2k and broke that magical mark. Our next runner to finish was Vicky, who not only passed her target, but quite literally smashed it, taking 15 mins of her PB which was already a club record. Looking at the finish line coverage, she didn’t seem to stop running (perhaps going for a Mall Strava segment?!)

Of the next few runners, Pete, Steve and Dave had all had injuries in the last few months, but overcame these to finish in great times, along with Sean who narrowly missed a new PB. I think Lee was our most experienced marathon runner and based on the conversation I had with him last week, I suspect he is still searching for the perfect way to run a marathon, but still a great effort considering the state of his feet afterwards.  Mat, and then Phil and Tom finished either side of the 4 hour mark, which is a tremendous achievement for their first marathons.

I understand Tanya and Andy didn’t know each other at the start but will do a little better now after running the first half of the race together. Tanya just finished ahead in the end, but great teamwork along the way. Paul received some some terrible news on the Saturday but bravely chose to take part. In those circumstances, you should be very proud Paul. Finally Dave showed that reaching the finish line and knowing you had the strength to work through the challenge of a marathon is what really matters.

A huge well done to all of you, as well as the many people who travelled up to watch and cheer our runners on. The Willows is a perfect pub to celebrate your achievement so hopefully we will see some of you tomorrow.

Heydon Mizon 2:59:45

Vicky Hunt 3:16:04

Pete Riley 3:19:03

Sean Darney 3:21:32

Steve Watson 3:28:11

Dave Campbell 3:29:43

Lee Pembroke 3:45:09

Matt Lucas 3:54:21

Phil Cherry 4:02:19

Tom Ashley 4:04:57

Tanya Nash 4:10:17

Andy Notley 4:11:35

Paul Thomas 4:25:51

Dave Holdich 6:06:38