It’s a London thing

· by · in Race Reports. ·

Anyone reading this will be aware that a fairly large world-famous 26.2 mile race happened this weekend, but before I go into that there’s the parkrun roundup.

52 of you attended 11 Parkruns this weekend some local, some not so. Mark Harris ran the Great Lines Parkrun in Medway while Charlotte Hammond took on a more coastal Parkrun down in Hastings. Into Europe now where Matthew Grant ran the Hesenheide Parkrun in Germany while Rob Dyer took on the Damhusengen Parkrun in Denmark.

Larna Marsh had a parkrun PB at Clacton seafront her third PB in a row, that’s some great running Larna, keep up the good work.

Highwoods parkrun celebrated its 200th event this weekend and 18 of you turned up to tackle the mud and hills of this course. There was also cake at the end so I guess that’s why so many of you turned up, including Sammy Cotton who thought nothing of doing a parkrun the day before taking on the London marathon!  Fair play I say – what’s 5k more when you have 42 to run the next day, which brings me nicely onto the main event!

The London Marathon

Anyone who has run this race before will tell there is something quite unique about it.

It could be the atmosphere around London on the day, it could be the famous landmarks, it could be finishing the race in front of Buckingham Palace, it could be the unbelievable excitement and energy of the crowd, but actually, it’s all that and some. The day is truly electric with bus, tube and train drivers all wishing runners the best of luck, as well as nods of approval and kind words from shop workers and passersby – and this is before you’ve even got the medal!

From what I can see 7 brave Bentleys took on and completed this iconic race but it wasn’t without its drama. Craig Slocombe’s shin splints came back with vengeance around mile 10 but somehow he still managed to sneak under the 3 hour mark – truly remarkable. Paul Arnold and Gethin Hugues suffered with severe cramping in the later stages of the race but both still managed to dig deep and achieve PB’s. I struggled with fatigue after mile 20 and had to watch time I had built up slowly tick backwards before my eyes but thankfully managed to get a PB. The results for the Bentley runners are below,

  • Paul Arnold 4:17:20 PB
  • Sammy Cotton 5:03:04 PB
  • Darren David 4:51:12 PB
  • Debs Hollidge 4:24:51
  • Gethin Hughes 3:56:16 PB
  • Jonathan Mann 3:10:12 PB
  • Craig Slocombe 2:59:05
Sammy looking race ready
Gethin was over the moon with his medal
Debs clearly chuffed with her achievements
Paul , proud to have completed the London Marathon

Huge congratulations to everyone who raced in London this weekend.  You all did fantastically well and I hope that you enjoyed everything that is race day at the London Marathon.

A quick shout out to those of you who made the journey up and battled the crowds to cheer us on. That, in itself, is no mean feat and even if we didn’t see you, knowing you were there really spurred us on.

Just before I finish this report I noticed that Phil Presland plus a couple of others ran the Viper trail run last Thursday evening. This is a hilly 5 mile trail run starting and finishing at The Viper pub out near Ingatestone. If you flash your race number in the pub at the end you are entitled to a free alcoholic or non-alcoholic beverage, so it would seem that it’s not just cake that gets a Bentley runner to run.

I think that’s it for now, apologies if I have missed anyone or anything. Have a great week.