Last weekend Pete Mackrell went off on his own to darkest Oxfordshire to take part in the Abingdon marathon. Having been thrawted by injury when runing very well last year, he has kep this plans pretty quiet, but has put in a couple of reasonable performances in the last few weeks.

On what was a cool, dry day with practically no wind, the 9am start was perfect for marathon running and with Pete's eyes firmly fixed on beating Joby's leading marathon time of the year he set off at a good pace. He was hoping that if he didn't slow too much in the second half, he even had a chance of sneaking under 3 hours on the flat rural course.

Having had issues recently with sore shins, he was hoping that they wouldn't come into play in the second half as he felt great after completing 13.1 miles in 1:25, firmly on course for a good time, but without any previous marathon experience. As it turned out, he slowed only fractionallyy and felt no twinges for just about the entire race as he entered the track in 2.52. The leading lady did come past him with 250m to go and his effort to go with her caused a hamstring cramp, but he was able to stagger over the line in a fantastic 2:53:56 and in 47^th place out of the 707 finishers.

We believe this is the fastest time by a club runner since Tom May ran 2:51 in London in 2003, with only Tom Inchley and Gary Stratford ducking under the three hour mark in that time. It is effectively 26 6.40 miles. Great effort Pete!

Whilst Pete was trotting around Abingdon, Joby and Jill headed futher South to Tadley in Hampshire where they took part in the Tadley Runners 10. The reports have come back that this was a very well organised event on a good fast course and so is recommended. Jill completed the course in 74 minutes and was extremely pleased, whilst Joby's 63 minutes, he felt was okay, but a minute outside his PB.