Almosts' Christmas period achievements

The Brighton Marathon, now the second biggest in the UK behind London was the testing ground for three Almost Athletes this week. In blustery, damp conditions for the start of the race, David Chittock, Deb Cartlidge and Robert Dalton-Morris were representing the club. Chittock & Cartlidge had trained together throughout the winter for the event and set off at a measured pace onto the surprisingly hilly course. Both were comfortable through to mile 5 but having suffered in a cycling accident only 48 hours before, Cartlidge was forced to ease back. Chittock pushed on and was delighted to finish in a new PB time by 8 minutes & his first under 4 hours for the marathon of 3:59:34 seconds. Cartlidge dug deep to maintain her pace & was over the line in an impressive 4:16. Dalton-Morris had a comfortable race up to 20 miles but found the last 6 very tough going. He still managed a 3:51, the first time he had gone below the 4 hours in 5 years and 25 minutes faster than his previous outing in Brighton.

Further afield Mike Daly was in the USA for the iconic & hugely competitive Boston MA, Marathon. Despite awful conditions with headwinds and torrential rain, Daly recorded an excellent 3:54.

As they continued their training to The Comrades Ultra this summer, Anne-Marie and Mark Willicott completed the 18th Valley and Views Trail Marathon in 6 hours.

At Cheltenham parkrun there was a new PB for Jeanette Gullick in 21:21. Robert Foord travelled to the Penallta parkrun and recorded a 21:17, 2nd in his age category. Steve Wallbridge ran a new parkrun PB at Tewkesbury in 22:57.
 
Rachel Fargher completed the Mersey Tunnel 10k and Allan Green completed his 499th marathon at the Betteshanger Marathon in 4:29.

Despite the continuing rain with poor and muddy running conditions, many members of Almost Athletes were again out in force over the past weekend.

On Saturday there were 32 Almost participants in the Forest of Dean Half Marathon, with several excellent results. Hattie Jenkins was both the first Almost to complete in a time of 1:31, and third lady overall, whilst Ellie Laney was fourth lady in 1:35, closely followed by Michelle Balchin in 1:39.  Jenkins, Laney and Balchin won the first ladies team prize. Three other Almost ladies recorded new PBs for this distance – Hayley Woolnough with 1:52, Alison Hume with 1:55 and Julie Birt with 1:57. Steve Wallbridge also broke his time from last year’s race by more than seven minutes, with a new PB of 1:45.

Other Almosts who completed the race in less than two hours were: Thomas Smith in 1:34, Shaun Carr and Matt Proome both in 1:37, Vasco Barreto in 1:38, Mike Kennedy in 1:40, Paul Haig in 1:41, Patricia Peever in 1:44, Joanna Wisniewska-Barreto in 1:48, Dave Elliott in 1:49, Steven Adams in 1:50, Jamie Reeves, Steve Taylor and Jim Trowbridge all in 1:55 and Lorraine Taylor in 1:57.

Also running were Clare Hearing in 2:02, Carole Doherty in 2:03, Catherine Mason in 2:12, Kevin Richards in 2:13, Catrin Davies in 2:17, Dominic Lyes in 2:19, Deborah Elliott and William Jones both in 2:22, Jayne Murphy and Nicola Woodman in 2:25, and Adrian Courtenay in 2:31.

Zakia Hussain ran in the Spring Wolf Run in Warwickshire on Saturday the 7th, a 10km off-road race through both natural and man-made obstacles. Down in Exmoor, Malc Allen tackled the similarly gruelling Exmoor Half Marathon, and completed this difficult course in 2:41.

Ingrid Harris took part in two events over the weekend with terrific results in both. On Saturday she ran the Magna Carta Half Marathon in Runnymede, coming first in her age group with a time of 1:49.  On Sunday she took part in the Groovy Baby Marathon along the River Thames and was first lady overall with a time of 4:01 on a wet and slippery course.

Allan Green notched up yet another marathon by completing the Taunton event in 4:15, bringing his tally of marathons up to 498.

On Sunday 8th, a group of 15 Almosts completed the Manchester Marathon, and there were again some noteworthy results for club members. Karen Galpin stormed home to become first in her age category with an impressive time of 3:30, whilst Rich Walklate achieved a massive new PB of 3:03 by knocking 22 minutes off his previous marathon time. Piotr Michalski and Neil Tring were both running their first marathons, and achieved 3:55 and 3:56 respectively. Janine Bennett also achieved a new PB with a time of 4:57.

Also completing in less than four hours were Rich Birch in 3:13, Prash Sripathi in 3:20, Ben Taylor in 3:21, Farook Mota in 3:55 and Emma Hall in 3:56.

Other finishers were Julie Scourfield in 4:23, Luke Worgan in 4:47, Coralie Pearson in 4:57, and Alison Gregg and Jane Birch in 5:50.

In the Birmingham Half Marathon, Stephen Holland came home in 1:55, whilst Shaun & Sarah Carr ran the tough Loughborough Half Marathon in 1:42 and 2:33 respectively.

There were two PBs for Almosts at Cheltenham parkrun this weekend – Graham Philpott with 28:02 and Jane Russell in 30:42. Piotr Michalski ran the South Manchester parkrun and also achieved a PB of 22:05, whilst Robert Foord came second in his age group at the hilly Colchester Castle parkrun with a time of 22:04.

On Easter Monday, Martin Thomas ran the Bushley Mile in Tewkesbury, and was very pleased to achieve a time of 6:23 and 21st place overall.