With the Brighton and London marathons just around the corner, we thought it was time to do a bit of a profile on each of the ten participating members this year. There may be the odd "fact" that is not strictly accurate but we're sure you won't notice!

First Up, The Brighton Lot…….

First up then is young Julia Hilton. She has joined this  club this year specifically to help with her training for her first ever marathon, which she is doing down on the South coast at the second Brighton event. She has already lined up a post race party in the penthouse suite of the Brighton Hilton using her family connections. Having been running for a year she completed the MK half in 2:17 this month and so will be looking for somewhere in the region of five hours for the 26.2 miles. Julia is raising money for the Multiple Sclerosis Society (http://www.justgiving.com/Julia-Hilton). With all the coaching she's been getting from Uncle Pete on a Wednesday night she'll probably start with a hangover and have the best run of her life!

Another debutant down in Brighton is Jane Sauer. Already doing a lot of horse riding and running, Jane sees her current marathon training as a step along the way to making the British Modern Pentathlon team at the Olympics. She has been in touch with Ashley Cole to request shooting lessons and will undoubtedly be purchasing an epee soon! Jane's running has improved vastly over the last year and with an increase in confidence after a cracking Finchley 20, she is planning on going sub 4 hours on the day. Jane is raising money for Tradissar RDA (http://www.justgiving.com/Jane-Sauer). Jane's biggest challenge will be to stop Chris dragging her down the pub the night before!

The third member of the Brighton squad is Ian Hosley. Since completing his first Ironman last summer, Ian's training was rudely interrupted by the birth of his first daughter. However, she is now a few months old and so is undoubtedly being trained to cycle around behind Dad shouting encouragement and holding a ready supply of drinks and hair clips! Whilst Ian's preperations have not been ideal, he is planning on just getting around the course in a respectable time and trying to enjoy the Brighton seafront as much as possible. This preumably means he'll stop off for the occasional ice-cream and hotdog along the way.

Our esteemed captain, Tom May is the final person making up the Brighton four. This must be about his tenth marathon, most of which he has done on crutches, as the last time he was injury free was 12^th August 1987, it was Tuesday! However, in the time since then he has managed to do 2:50 for the event which is not bad considering he has to take twice as many strides as the rest of us, although he does have half the weight to carry! Tom has managed a number of long training runs on this occasion so is fairly well prepared (compared to usual) and should put in a good time of not too far over 3 hours.

 

Now on to London……

Taking part in her second marathon, but first London is Amy Inchley. Amy's training has been predominantly focused around preparing mentally by playing late night online Scrabble with other like-minded athletes. She has performed well over recent months by receiving regular advice from her husband and routinely ignoring it. This has paid dividends in the recent Ashby and Oakley 20's which have filled her with confidence for the big day. Her main aim at the start of the training was to get under 4 hours, but current form would suggest something quicker is a strong possibility (it is not being discussed though!!). All of those who going to support Amy have already been issued with compulsory pink pom-poms to flourish in support.

Very few of you will know Simon Lathwell who is a former club captain. Simon moved to Dorset about 12 years ago but still retains his membership and runs the marathon every year in club colours and comes to the pub afterwards. In each of the last five races Simon has been between 3 and 3:15 so we pretty much know when to expect him and as one of the "good for age" runners he will probably be running it for the next 30 years too. Despite having just turned 50 he still looks like he did when he was running cross-countries in the early 90's.

Joe Hurley came running on a Wednesday a couple of weeks ago for the first time in months having been long term injured and busy with work. At that stage, with six weeks to go he had managed six miles!! We foolishly asked if he was able to defer his "good for age" entry, but Joe looked surprised and confirmed that he still intended to run round London on the 17^th April. To date, Joe has done approximately 850 marathons and considers them a nice afternoon stroll, particularly when they clear all the cars out of the way, as they do in London. the real challenge is to see if he can beat last year's record of seven pints (ed. apparently it was 9 and two thirds!) in the pub afterwards without falling over. Joe will undoubtedly jog round the course in something like 3:20 before sprinting to the Princess of Wales!

When Ian Grimshaw first came along on a Wednesday night, he had never done a race, liked training on his own and just came along to make sure we didn't abduct Lynn! Now he's challenging in the Stag Trophy, led us round the last two cross-countries, leads the way each Wednesday and is doing his first marathon. He will then undoubtedly go and run us all into the ground over the summer road race season. Who the hell invited him? Ian's training has gone very well and his times suggest sub 3. The only thing against him is it his debut over the distance and you just don't know!

With his great great great grandfathers statue near to the finish in Trafalgar Square Craig Nelson feels huge pride when he runs in London. In homage to his ancestor, last time around at the last minute Craig decided to run using only one leg, which he then tried to have unconventionally removed using a toboggan. However, this year Craig is going to use all his limbs to get around the course as quickly as possible so has taken to cycling everywhere. We are unsure whether anyone has told him this is not permitted on the day, but hopefully it will be fine and as long as his bionic leg holds out he will be somewhere around the 3-3:15 mark.

Our final runner is the new club secretary, Pete Mackrell. As one of only three famous people from Burnley along with Sir Ian McKellan and England Cricketer Jimmy Anderson, the whole weight of expectation of two towns rests on his shoulders. There are a few thousand LBAC fans making the trip to the big smoke to support their hero, and there is a live satellite link screen being erected in Burnley town centre to follow the progress the Lancashire athlete marooned down South. In just his third marathon he has set himself the stiff challenge of beating the 2:53:56 that he acheived last October in Abingdon, but with a solid cross-country season, some great long training runs and Sir Ian willing him all the way, he can't go wrong!

GOOD LUCK TO ALL THOSE ATTEMPTING THE DISTANCE