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A swift first half (1:17:38) looked to have put Andy Cooney on his way to challenging his pb, but the pace and the heat combined to make the second half a “horror show” and produced a finishing time of 2:44:44. Still, finishing 22nd overall and 2nd Brit is not to be sniffed at!

A week after setting a new half marathon PB at Windsor, Anna Varnagy went home to run the Budapest Marathon. Temperatures of 31C put paid to fast times, but she completed her first marathon in 5:24:43.

Whilst we were slogging up a hill in Wycombe, Brent Curless was running in the far more exotic environment of Rio de Janeiro, completing the marathon distance in 3:36:28 for 453rd place.

Martin Richardson writes:

With a total elevation gain of 5728ft and loss  of 5523ft, this was not going to be an easy first marathon, if any are.  Thankfully, the rain which had been threatening all week never showed. Whilst sunny at times, it never got too warm, making for some spectacular views from the tops of the South Downs. After a mostly comfortable run, with appropriate walking on some of the steeper uphills, and good pace on the downhill sections, i was delighted to finish within 4 hours.

For the record, Martin finished in 3:55:14 in 165th place, although if you take out the 46 relay teams that were ahead of him he actually finished 119th. Well done Martin.

Congratulations to Annabel Alphonso who knocked 10 minutes off her marathon PB at Edinburgh this morning, finishing in 4:00:43.

Phew, what a scorcher - fantastic racing at the front in all the races (1/100th of a second in the women’s wheelchair race!), and increasingly hot weather as the day went on. Maintaining an even pace proved difficult as the temperature increased, and only Eugenie managed a negative split!

(I think it’s true that in all the time I’ve been at the club, no man has ever run a negative split in a marathon, while a fair few women have).

Congratulations to everyone who ran, both those whose race went according to plan and who hit their goals, and to those who perhaps experienced the capricious nature of the event – better luck next time to them!

Click the name to link directly to the runner’s result on the marathon website. This doesn’t work due to the stupid design of the VLM website. Sigh. Oh hold on, found out how to make it work.

Full Stat Attack file here: dashers-london-marathon-stats.xls

Steff Molloy took a trip to Ireland to run this extremely scenic and not exactly flat marathon, finishing a very creditable 326th in 4:16:00, and 6th in the FV35 category.

Craig Sherratt visited the seaside for the 2nd Brighton Marathon, and found some very warm conditions. He finished in 1824th position in a time of 4:00:17.

Update 12/04/2011

Ed Aspel also travelled to sunny Brighton and came in at an excellent 4:59:33 for 5598th position.

Brent Curless made his regular trip to this event, finishing in 1:40:31.

Provisional results show Simon Black running an excellent new PB of 2:56:11, but the big effort will be London I believe - this was a training run! Star of the show however was undoubtedly Kathryn who ran 3:47:56, knocking nearly 40 minutes off her PB and passing over 1500 runners in the 2nd half. See you at London on the Good For Age start next year Kathryn

Simon & Kathryn have since sent the following:

When you get a PB by 1:30 you are usually very pleased… when you get a PB by nearly 1:30 per mile you have every reason to be ecstatic. Thats what Kathryn did in today’s BCN marathon with a very consistent run (3 of the 5km’s were within 1 second of each other) and yes, a 38 min PB, a good for age time and a very very very big smile. 3:47:56 was the actual score on the door, and after 10 months out injured last year, this was welcome reward.
Simon also ran well with a London target in his sights and was pleased to unintentionally PB…. thats what happens when you don’t look at your watch. Looking forward to seeing many of you at the post marathon meal (please let it be on the Monday!!) and there are a couple of times for you all to aim at

Andy Cooney didn’t find the cold wet conditions in Florence to his liking, but still managed to finish 68th out of nearly 8000 competitors in a time of 2:43:45, putting him top of the Dashers marathon rankings for the 6th year in a row. Well done Andy.

The marathon bests keep on coming as Craig Sherratt finished the Dublin Marathon in 3:48:50 this morning, knocking over 8 minutes off his PB set at the same event last year. Following Craig home was Huw Thomas in 3:57:46, whilst sadly Clara Trant picked up an injury shortly after halfway and is not currently recorded as having finished.

Rachhpal Bath rounded off a very successful season with the Marathon Palma de Mallorca, completing the course in a new MV70 record of 5:47:31. Well done Rachhpal, you’re an inspiration to us all

Near-perfect conditions for marathon running, and one of the flattest and fastest courses in the world – what more could you ask for?

Fast times? PB’s all round?

Steve Hopkins smashed through the 3-hour barrier by taking 12 minutes off his best, Paul Woolley carved almost 10 minutes off his best [despite being under the weather and dosed up on lemsip], Brent should probably be tested for performance-enhancing drugs with a time like 3:19 and an 8 minute pb , and Michelle took another 8 minutes off her best to come in a cracking 3:29.

The Hopkins household is now home to the 5th fastest male and female Dashers over the marathon distance, while the Curless household welcomes home the 2nd fastest MV50 in club history!

Chris Hunt recently raced in the far-from-flat Salisbury 5-4-3-2-1 Trail Marathon, finishing in 3:58:50 and an excellent 28th position.