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Ed Aspel ran this one with his son, once again losing out to the youthful sprint finish in the last 50 yards with 1:04:23 vs 1:04:22!

 Michelle Purnell writes:

After months of tricking my mind into running one footstep at a time, when I saw the stadium in Cardiff at the end and my fab little support crew I still had no comprehension of the 50mile distance traveled…I was finishing and it was going to be at a sprint, smiling and looking strong. 

We all started on the bus from Cardiff at 530am, there was a lot of nervous laughter and many were quite subdued. Like me there were a lot of wannabe ultra runners, those who had been unbroken by a marathon, never standing a chance at being quick but wanted to see where the limits lay.  Some found their limits, I was a lucky one.

Nothing happened in the way I had expected, the weather was lovely, there were no demons, I could eat throughout without any real objection and I never found the wall.  Everyone was very jolly on the way round, looking out for each other but there was one rule…never think beyond the next checkpoint, never talk about it, it was never 49miles to go but 9 miles to the next checkpoint.

At the finish there was no clock, it was irrelevant.  We were home, safe and it wasn’t dark.  Today I joined a very special club…I am an ultra runner and will be forever.

Thank you so much to everyone who helped me train, your support has astounded me and it has been a real honour to run for such an important and fabulous charity as Macmillian.  Will my legs ever forgive me?

The irrelevant time just happened to be 11:02:07. Well done Michelle!

For her first marathon Holly Seear chose the tough Richmond Park Marathon, and she put in an excellent performance finishing 13th lady home in 3:56:37.

Not satisfied with one hilly marathon, Joe Hawkins ran his 2nd marathon of the weekend in Windermere, his 3rd in a week, finishing in 3:51:05. And these are just the warmup for Edinburgh next weekend!

Ed Aspel recorded a good time of 26 minutes exactly for 118th place.

Joe Hawkins entered this hilly marathon in the Derbyshire Peak District, just 6 days after running the Halstead Marathon, and finished an excellent 32nd in 3:24:46.

Excellent conditions this morning on a course that has now fully dried out. There were parkrun pb’s for Chris Bradfield and Andrew English, and a Jackie Stallwood topped the age-grading ranking!

The late cancelation of the Wargrave 5k presented an opportunity for Dashers to run the first in the series of 5k and 10k races held on the pancake flat loop around the reservoir.

10k

On a still evening, Guy Bowles raced to an impressive 34:21, a win, and a course record!

5k

A big PB for Julian Borrill, and new ladies FV55 5k record for Barbara Allen

Sadly the additional rain we have been having today has resulted in the parking area for the Wargrave 5k being in no fit state for car parking. Wargrave Runners have therefore had to make the decision to cancel the event. They will try to reschedule the event for later in the season.

As a result the club will now be open on Tuesday 15th for a usual Tuesday session.

Paul Mason ran this challenging off-road event, finishing first MV40 in an impressive 7th place in an equally impressive time of 2:19:58.

A really tough course saw only one person break 6-minute-miling for on the course. Unfortunately for David Lee it wasn’t him, but he did run to an excellent 3rd place - his second of the week.

The near-perfect conditions led to some excellent running in Marlow.

PBs galore, including Philip Jones setting a new club MV40 record (and Simon Wigzell breaking the existing record as well), plus Cherry Key setting a new FV45 record and Barbara Allen a new FV55 record.

It’s also worth mentioning that Martin Kelsey scored a new PB in his first race for 2 years, having basically had to learn to run again, and also a welcome return for Brent Curless after a long absence as well.