Many congratulations to Sarah SYERS who ran superbly in the Dublin Marathon on Monday 29th October. Sarah finished 2944th in 3.38.58, running with close friend Adam CHATAWAY. Adam is taking part in 6 marathons on 6 continents in 29 days, raising money for a school in Ethiopia. More info on this amazing feat, which included running the Nairobi Marathon only 24 hours before, is at www.justgiving.com/PhileasJogg or on Twitter @phileasjogg.
The day before Cris ATWELL took part in his 4th consecutive Newcastle Town Moor Marathon. Cris was 39th of the 94 runners in 3.48.18.
Cris says “This is the Marmite of the marathon world. You either love it or hate it. Five laps of the Town Moor is psychologically demanding as well as the obvious physical effort required to run 26 miles but at 9.30 on Sunday morning approximately 100 runners set off from the Exhibition Park for the fourth running of the race organised by the North East Veterans Athletic Club in conjunction with the North East Marathon Club.
I had done each of the previous three versions of this race so I knew what to expect. As I had done in each of the previous three I tried to just “drift” through the first two laps without really thinking about what I was doing. This worked fairly well and I got half way round the the third lap without too much trouble. However, the lack of training over the last two months due to my house move started to take effect and by the time I started lap 4 I was feeling very tired.
I got through the lap in the hope that starting the last lap would give me a boost but I actually just got even slower. I was clinging on through the first half of the last lap but then cought up with Harry PORTEOUS and we ran together for a wee while. This helped calm me down and I started to pick the pace up slightly. Unfortunately Harry dropped back so I had to run the last couple of miles on my own but by then I was feeling stronger and got to the end in a time of 3.48.18 to finish 39th out of 94 finishers.
Harry was two places back in 3.49.58 but his fellow Wooler member Pauline AITCHISON ran superbly to finish 19th (3rd Lady) in 3.25.17.
That was my 9th and very definitely last marathon of 2012. I am slightly disappointed that I didn’t get to 10 but the house move got in the way and I’m just too tired to do another this year.”
Finally on Saturday 27th October Peter GREY took part in the Sunderland Parkrun. Peter was 2nd overall in 18.48, easily winning his age category.
