Dave Neilands reports . . . .

Hills could be the one word to describe the difference between the Nottingham Marathon and the Langdale Marathon in the Lake District . The dreaded “wall” featured in Garstang Running clubs Gary Heyworth’s first ever marathon at Nottingham . After proceeding normally for the first 22 miles “then it hit me, don’t know what but there was nothing in my legs”, how many marathon runners know that feeling? Determined not to walk Gary plugged on to finish 425th of the 1128 finishers in an excellent 3 hours 49 minutes. Alex Brown was running his second, and he now says his last marathon to dip under the magic 4 hour mark to finish 493rd in another good time of 3 hors 55 minutes. Tim Warner is a bit of an old hand at marathons, but he would agree that as marathons go the Langdale Marathon presents a special challenge. Only 99 competitors completed the full marathon with Tim finishing 54th in an excellent 4 hours 24 minutes. 446 runners ONLY did the half marathon with the last finisher crossing the line 40 seconds ahead of the full marathon winner. Julie Graham was the clubs sole representative finishing 249th in 2hours and 35 whole seconds.

A new race for 2008 was the Settle Loop Trail race over 9.5 miles with 1500 feet of ascent. Phillipa Olive gave the tough race a try finishing 69th in 1.36.26. With a blast from the past the ladies race was won by ex Garstang member and now Settle resident Jill Robinson. In a small field of only 107 the Lancaster Half Marathon saw Tony Pritchard run his best time for 10 years finishing 19th in 1.21.39 and 2nd MV55. The Blackpool Illuminations 10k saw Debating Spencer finish 188th of the 290 finishers in 55.17 minutes, whilst the Burton in Kendal 10k drew a field of 96 with Richard Jones finishing 20th in 42.23 (are his sub 40 days over?). At the far end of the distance spectrum the inter club 4 miler at Leyland saw Richard finishing 51st in 25.05 minutes

 

16/9/08

Dave Neilands

 

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