In an usual convergence of dates largely owing to the pandemic, this weekend saw the London Marathon and Cardiff Half Marathon take place on the same day, and as you’d expect we had good participation in both. Last week also saw a few others events ranging from a 10k, through a sprint triathlon and, being RFRC we do of course have an ultra marathon to cover!
Firstly, despite the ever increasing challenge of grabbing a place we had 6 runners in the capital racing the iconic London marathon. Ali Bisatt was first finisher for the club in a fantastic time of 3:06:40, followed in by Andrew Saunders in 3:17:28. Sally Tuer produced yet another great performance in what has been a very busy year for her, crossing the finish line in 4:29:31. Next back was Kris Saint in 4:33:30, Joanna Gavins in 4:44:27 and then Rosie Benneyworth in 5:11:50. Each of the runners at London have their own challenges to overcome just to make it to the start line, so congratulations to all 6 for making it to the finish as well!
Not to be left out, Georgina Brice did the NOT the London Marathon, completing it in a great time of 5:32:25.
Over in the Welsh capital we had a good turnout of 12 runners for the always popular Cardiff Half Marathon. So popular that many have already signed up to give it another go next year. First back was Ron Foord in 1:50:12, then a cluster of runners around the 2-hour mark including Darren Purchase (2:00:08), Sam Cross (2:01:16), Damon Butler (2:02:23), Chris Adams (2:03:49), Nadine Prouse (2:08:10) and Jamie Hill (2:09:37). All the others got around the course in under 3 hours, including Katie Baker (2:17:48), Liz Williams (2:33:57), Tanya Gault (2:51:17), Karen Chapman (2:59:50) and Sarah Holloway (2:59:51).
The less high profile events of the week included Ben Timpson in Cornwall for the Poldhu Trail 10k in 53:17, Andy Staples up in Cheshire for the Chester marathon which he whizzed around in 3:07:08 and ensuring we had representation in at least one ultra marathon was Emily Macaulay in the Winding Paths Exe Estuary 50k, completing the race in 7h30m. Race regular Simon Rowland was in action in the Minehead Sprint Triathlon completing the three events in 1:38:51.
A good selection of parkrun locations again this week, with 21 at Longrun Meadow and then ones and twos at Bolberry Down in the South Hams, Hastings, Penrose, Street, Whitby, Worthing and York.