Marathon running has never been so popular and 13 club members tackled the 26.2 miles this spring. Legend has it that the marathon dates back to 490BC when some Greek bloke ran the 40km from Marathon to Athens to announce victory in a battle (there were no mobile phones in those days you see). Therefore every year, thousands of runners feel compelled to commemorate this feat of endurance running by subjecting themselves to the same mix of toil, sweat, dehydration, chafing, exhaustion, tears, and sunburn.

To all those who completed a spring marathon, we salute you. To all those contemplating it in future, you must be mad!! But we understand, because after all, all runners are slightly mad.

Brighton (14th April)
Whilst not completely flat, and often exposed to the wind, this race still has a good reputation for fast times. It is fast becoming a preferred alternative for many of those who miss out on a London place.
(Entries for 2014 are already open: http://www.brightonmarathon.co.uk/enter-2014-brighton-marathon).
 
Kate Owens continues to quietly go about rewriting the club marathon record. In Brighton she ran 3:23 which took 9 minutes off her previous best, which was already the club record. Her pacing was spot on with 1st/2nd half splits of 1:41 and 1:42 respectively. She finished an amazing 24th out of 3,205 female finishers! Her time comfortably earns her a Good for Age place for the 2014 London Marathon.

Also impressing in Brighton was Ian Grimshaw, who took a 5 minute chunk off his PB to finish in 3:04. This placed him 105th out of the 9,157 finishers, and also earns him a London Marathon place. No doubt he’ll be looking to continue his progression and finally crack the sub-3.

London (21st April)
The LBAC London Marathon injury curse struck again this year. Six club entrants made it to the start line, but most of those had their training ruined by injuries. Meanwhile a further five were forced to miss the race completely. For those that ran, the warm temperatures following months of arctic training runs didn’t help either. However all of our starters finished the race, and they still produced very respectable times, considerably faster than the average time of 4:27 achieved by the 34,217 finishers.
(If you haven’t already entered the ballot for 2014, it’s too late!)

First home for the club was Stuart Blofeld, who decided that doing a marathon might be good training for longer challenges that await him later this year. With his previous PB of 3:17 being set at Snowdonia, it was about time he ran a ‘proper’ marathon. And he didn’t disappoint, he ran a near perfect 1st/2nd half split of 1:29/1:30 to finish in 2:59:35 and sneak inside the illusive sub-3hr barrier. Not bad for a plodding Ultra runner, it’s just a shame he doesn’t appear in the official results!

Six months ago, Chris Williams couldn’t even walk and there was no prospect of him running at all. And so the LBAC London Marathon injury curse began. However, Chris wasn’t going to let the completely knackered back stop him. He managed to overcome the club curse, and his injuries, to finish his debut marathon in a very respectable 4:10. Here’s hoping he can remain injury free for another attempt.

Ian Hosley had an interesting race. Having been ill the night before, he still took up his place on the start line hoping he was over the worst of it. Unfortunately he wasn’t. He was sick several times during the race, which ruined any targets he had. The 20km-30km stretch was particularly tough, but after he had deposited the contents of his stomach on a London street, he sped up considerably. Over the final 7km he overtook 1,561 runners (whilst only 6 passed him) to finish in a highly commendable 4:02. This means that over those final 7km he passed 40 runners every minute, or one for every one and a half seconds!

Joe Hurley and Fred Watt are two of our stalwart veterans, both of them have multiple London appearances earned through Good for Age qualification. Both have been injured but decided to run anyway, because "it’s good training, isn’t it?” Therefore both should be pleased with their ‘training’ runs, with Joe finishing in 3:25 and Fred in 4:08.

Having cracked the sub-3 in Amsterdam 18 months ago, Andy Inchley was disappointed with his time of 3:14 at London. His build up was hampered by injury and illness, which probably contributed. He should console himself with the fact that to be disappointed with 3:14, you have to be a pretty good runner in the first place. And he still holds the Inchley family record!

Milton Keynes (6th May)
Milton Keynes is another new-ish marathon. Five club members were amongst the 2,042 finishers in the race which starts and finishes at Stadium MK. Last year’s race was freezing cold, wet, and flooded in places. This year spectators were rewarded with a glorious May bank holiday, which made it difficult for the runners.
(This race doesn’t normally fill up, and you can even enter on the day!)

Several of the MK marathoners had slipped under the radar somewhat during the build up, and Gary Stratford certainly falls into that category. Perhaps this demonstrates his training was going well with no dramas. Despite the warm conditions, he put in a stunning run to finish in 3:11. This placed him 59th in the race (19th V40) and earned him a London Marathon qualifying time.

Another club member who has recently caught the Ultra bug is Helen Crossland. She has been gradually increasing the distance of her races with bigger challenges to come later in the year. Her marathon debut of 5:03 is a very solid performance, and useful training miles in the bank!

Warren Rose was running the MK marathon for the second successive year, making him an ever present in the event. Fingers crossed he gets a London ballot place so he doesn’t have to consider a third run around MK next year! His time of 3:41 was 20 minutes down on last year, which partly demonstrates the much harsher running conditions.

Narrowly behind Warren was Dan Webb, who was completing his second marathon. His time of 3:43 was a PB, beating his previous best from Nottingham two years ago.

Last but my no means least was Jon Hull, who surprised us all because nobody realised he was running until a few days beforehand. We don’t know how his training went, or whether he’ll be attempting another one, but his 4:16 was a good solid time in those conditions.

Summary
So Stuart and Kate lead the way after the Spring races, but there’s all to play for with over half the year remaining. Several club members have already pencilled in visits to Abingdon, Berlin and Amsterdam in the autumn to see what they can produce on notoriously flat courses.