New York Marathon

by Kassia Gardner

SO. MUCH. NOISE. Not today though. Today in Central Park, New York, the roar has gone and there is just the low rumble of distance traffic, a city ambience punctuated by the low ‘whoop, whoop’ of emergency vehicles – NYC emergency vehicles don’t make a ‘nee naw’ sound like they do in the UK but anyway I digress. Let me take you back 48 hours to the NYC Marathon.

Kas in trouble with the locals!

I hadn’t slept well since arriving in NYC on Thursday, the cacophony of noise from irritating garbage, emergency vehicle sirens, and construction noise coming in through the open window meant for a restless night’s sleep, of course we could have shut the window but then the room would get too hot, or we could have put the air con on, but even that was loud. read more

London Marathon – Part 2

Elliot Hind – 2:33:13

To say I’d been looking forward to the London Marathon of 2017 would be an understatement.  Training had gone perfectly and I’d broken the club record for 20 miles twice in the build up (best was 1.52 at the Oakley 20).  

My brother’s girlfriend very kindly let me stay at her flat in East Dulwich so I was only 12 minutes by train from the Championship start at Blackheath.  I had a really relaxed journey down and had a quiet evening eating pasta and watching TV.  In the morning there were trains every half an hour from Peckham Rye station, I decided to go for the 08.21 which would get me to the start well over an hour before the 10.00 race and had plenty of buffer time if anything went wrong.   read more

London Marathon – Part 1

Stuart Read 2:57:51

I’ve been very fortunate to get into the London marathon twice through the public ballot (feel free to punch me), with the last time being in 2008.  At that time, I was in my late twenties and thought I could get away without training much.  I certainly got what was due to me in last 6 miles of that race.  This time it was going to be different and I felt confident I could get a big PB on my 4.18 time.

With a fairly solid bulk of training over winter and a couple of good marathon paced long runs behind me I was feeling confident heading into a three week taper. read more

Brighton Marathon – 9th April 2017

by Michael Furness

The Brighton Marathon was going to be my first marathon for five years, having previously done London and Milton Keynes.  My PB stood at 3:34, which was achieved at the 2012 MK marathon; remembered by all who attended as being the wettest and coldest April Sunday ever experienced.

Training had gone well during the weeks and months leading up to the race so I was reasonably confident I could get another PB and break the 3:30 barrier and possibly even 3:20 if everything went was well as it could do. read more