This is the week that was…… The MK Marathon Weekend

This is the week that was... The MK Marathon Weekend

Before we talk about the fabulous achievements at the MK Marathon weekend, some of you were being amazing elsewhere...

Maverick Frontier Chilterns Trail Run & The Aldbury 5

In Aylesbury, Jo Secker and Paul Little competed in the Maverick Frontier Chilterns Trail Run. Jo took on the 10k trail event, which probably felt like a walk in the park after her long distance events the previous 3 weekends! Paul continued his race preparations for the Lakeland 100 with the 50km event which he covered in 6hrs and 13 minutes.

   

On Sunday, the team were again out in force, this time in the quaint Hertfordshire village of Aldbury for the Aldbury 5. It was especially good to see Jim Buttleman back out in team kit. Well done to Jen Garner and William Harry who cycled to and from the event, a great way to warm up and cool down! Some of our GSRR team used the event to hone their trail running skills with Phil Brogan, Graham Cooper and Kevin Hare putting in good times. Backing up his recent half marathon performances, Mike Garner put in another solid run.

Now for the long awaited event... The MK Marathon Weekend

I guess it’s fair to say, this weekend has been a long time coming (402 days to be precise). If, like me, you entered your event in 2019, you probably even wondered if it would ever happen. Some of you probably did a virtual event during 2020, and when we thought we were good to go in the Autumn of 2020, but we had another postponement and maybe you did the event virtually for a second time? I’ve been watching your training efforts every week and getting some tips for my own marathon later in the year! The mental strength you’ve all shown has been impressive to get race ready for the weekend just gone.

Disclaimer from me as I write the race report. Some of you may not have entered under LFR at your point of entry. Please excuse me if I miss you out, but I’ll do my best. 

The race weekend started on Friday night with the Turing 10k, where Andy Griggs and Jane Crighton represented LFR, well done both! Andy Griggs knocked out yet another PB!

As we moved into Saturday, it really did feel like the “old days”. The start line had a bit of a Saturday morning parkrun feel about it, nervous excitement of a race, chatter with friends who you’d not seen for a while and race day focus all in equal measure. Some of us thought it was a good idea to park our cars at the end and run-walk to the start but it was a little further than we thought!!! Some of you used the 5k as a warm up to the Half Marathon that was to follow later that day, or even for Sunday’s full marathon. But you got triple bling for that effort!

 

The results page showed that there were 18 of us who took on the 5k challenge of The Rocket. Will Langdon, Adam Carter and James Bassil all used the event as a prelude to their Half Marathon and Gavin Prechner as a warm up to Sunday’s Marathon and in doing so, guided Debbie McMillan to a new 5k PB! Steve Molyneaux also PB’d with a 24:38!

Nolan Johnson completed his first race in a very long time following his knee injury and Alex Nixon celebrated breaking 30 minutes by quite some margin and narrowly missing a PB. A big shout out to Christine and David Ayres who performed well in their age group and speaking to Christine after the event, she was desperate to get back to the Buzzard for their Linslade Parks Run. I think they both made it back for the post run coffee and cake.

To see how you performed the results by club for the Rocket can be found HERE.

 

After the Rocket it was the turn of the Half Marathoners, again, a huge turnout of 17 registered runners donning the Red, Black and White, all putting in some great performances. Leading the team home with yet another PB on the back of his great run in St Albans 2 weeks ago was Will Langdon with a brilliant 1:34:02. Other stand out performances came from Lee Garnell who ran his first half marathon in 2 hours and 4 minutes, I’m sure there’s a new target to be had there Lee! Just a few minutes ahead of Lee was Scott Myford who also ran his first official Half Marathon in 2:01:39, supported as always by his running buddy Adam Carter.

Chris Stenner had a great run, knocking an impressive 7 minutes off his previous PB. Chris has been religiously following Coach Annis’ training plan and it’s clearly worked. So if you want to improve your own times at whatever distance, then why not drop Matt or Annis a message?

New member Matt Grigsby completed the Half Marathon in 1:58:48 and is so new to LFR he isn’t showing on the results page which can be found HERE. Another new member Nicola Daley also had a great run clearing the 2 hour mark by an easy margin. Well done all!

After the excitement of Saturday came Super Sunday, the focus turned to the Marathon and Marathon Relay where we were defending champions! The relay team of Dan Green, Matthew Ma, Tom and Steve Ellerton did us all proud. With a combined time of 2 hours and 38 minutes they came in second to what Dan described as a bunch of speedy youngsters! That’s still an average pace of 6:03 minute miles and a great effort by the team, I’m sure next year you’ll be eyeing that win and getting your trophy back! The results of the relay can be seen HERE.

You will have seen reports in previous newsletters of how training has been going for our Fab Four marathon runners who took on the two lap course on Sunday morning. To get yourself ready for a marathon (I’m told) is hard enough. To peak once, then have the date moved and have to peak again I just can’t imagine!

Leading the team home was Coach Matt in a stunning 3 hours and 22 minutes. Coming in next was Richard Heady in a new PB of 3 hours 38. Richard reported this as his first marathon in 5 years, I’m sure it won’t be as long until you complete another marathon Richard! Gavin Prechner, fuelled by some pizza (really?) came in next just a few minutes behind Richard in 3 hours and 44 minutes. This is Gavin’s first of 3 planned marathons this year with Brighton and Snowdon to come later in the year! What a machine! VC Andy completed the “awesome foursome” in a great 3 hours and 56 minutes ably supported at mile 23 by his support team. As Andy said, his first marathon where he’s run injury free. All the training has certainly paid off. To see the details of the guys runs, their official results can be seen HERE.

      

In a final note on the weekend, races like this can’t be run without the help of all the marshalls and volunteers. Out on the course we had James Smith and Annis and Steph Turner. So on behalf of all the runners, thank you for giving up your time to make the event happen.