Race Report 3rd October 2022

This week’s race report includes the London marathon but there was plenty of other action taking place over the weekend to include.

Kicking the week off we have a winner to report in Michelle Harle who only went and won the Round Rotherham 50 miles on-off road event that also doubled as a relay event! Staying with the off-road theme it was great to see a return to racing from long term training partner Max Polson who took part in the Kielder half marathon.

Jumping across the pond to New York we saw Leeds athlete Elle Warren run a new half marathon personal best in heavy rain in the Bay Ridge half marathon.

Staying with an international event we saw coached triathlete Adrian Hopkinson complete the Barcelona Ironman event so he can now call himself an “Ironman”!

Taking away a swim but leaving both the biking and running we saw strong performances from both Jayne Baldwin and Llyr “Robbo” Roberts in their respective duathlons.

Fine weather greeted the runners in the popular Hedgehog Half marathon near Scunthorpe and we saw a great run from Susie Hinchcliffe to take the 1st place V45 and 4th lady overall.

Finally moving to the London marathon where the tradition at Blizard Towers is that we get out early for our own long run followed by a fry up Dave cooks everyone while we track the runners! This year was no different with a split screen to watch and several tablets/phones all tracking you guys. There really were too many runners we were tracking to mention everyone ( sorry if we miss you off ) but a few of the stand out runs came from Matt Harvey who smashed under his old pb to stop the clock in 2.47hrs. Matt has been on every marathon session we have put on in the lead up to yesterday and these group runs have certainly paid off for him. Nigel Fuller made an excellent marathon debut, while Danny Bent went under his old personal best.

Track specialist Jon Stewart showed a versatility beyond impressive having gone from winning a medal in the World Master’s 1500m track to running a very impressive marathon off about 2 weeks notice!

However, it gives us immense pleasure to give the “Run of the week” to Clowne Road Runner Malc Stapleton who finally cracked the 3hrs barrier at the age of 59 years old. Malc has been a great supporter of the clinic over the years and Dave spoke to him a few minutes after crossing the line and had to screenshot the official result and send it to him for proof he had actually done it!

Next week we have Chicago runners to continue this great tread we are enjoying! Until next week…..keep training.