Danielle and Michael in fine form at top marathon
Danielle Gibson and Michael McKean joined the 50,000 participants in the London Marathon on Sunday morning.
Danielle was proud to have qualified to represent DRC in the UK Championship race held within the marathon and Michael had the designated club place awarded by the organisers.
Danielle was delighted that training for this event had raised £1,785 for Alzheimer’s Research, in memory of Janet Mattinson and Anne Crawford, and she was incredibly grateful for all the donations.
In the race itself Danielle showed superb pace judgement. She set herself an ambitious target to run under seven minutes for each mile and unusually the first few miles were her slowest as she felt her stomach was cramping.
She reached 5k in under 21 minutes and got to half-way in 88.57. She grew in confidence as the race went on and realised she had a very strong chance to break the three hour mark.
She kept even paced running mile after mile and remarkably was able to keep the same pace to the second all the way to the finish.
She crossed the line in 2 hours 58 minutes and was 187th woman in the entire race and her position of 3,127th meant that she was in the top five per cent for the whole field.
Michael was running his debut marathon and was very much aware that he had not been able to train as hard as he would have liked.
He had been bothered by an Achilles injury and had missed five to six weeks of solid training as a result.
In the race itself, he started very carefully at over eight minutes a mile for the first nine to 10 miles, but from then on in his injury hampered his progress and he was forced to walk several times which slowed him down.
He crossed the line in 4 hours 19 minutes and was delighted to get round and enjoyed the whole experience of such a big city marathon.
The Northern Traverse
Starting bright and early on a blustery Saturday morning on the first weekend of April, David Parrish lined up for his second ultramarathon at the start line of the 2024 Northern Traverse.
This event is a continuous ultramarathon that follows the route of the Wainwright Coast to Coast, starting at St Bees on the Irish Sea and finishing at Robin Hood’s Bay on the North Sea, some 300 kilometres away, assuming no navigational errors.
Storm Kathleen ensured that the race began with an unhelpful crosswind, as runners headed north up onto the adjacent cliffs.
Mercifully, however, the strong winds were westerly and so for much of Saturday the runners benefited from the extreme weather.
Saturday evening brought some rain and when David arrived in Patterdale at about half five he was informed he would be the last participant to go on the original route (up Kidsty Pike), other runners would be diverted around the highest point of the race on a slightly longer but less exposed and elevated detour.
Kidsty Pike itself wasn’t that unpleasant, but as the light dimmed on the route to Shap, sideways rain began in earnest and did not relent until Sunday morning, testing sense of humours and DWR ratings alike.
As morning broke on Sunday, David had moved up a few places without actually overtaking anyone, as the conditions brought significant attrition.
This meant that only 65 per cent would complete the race, the lowest on record.
David reached the Richmond checkpoint by lunch and was greeted by his father and uncle, and was handed a touching print-off of all the kind people that had written notes of support which really helped him.
Night fell and David began to experience the disquieting effects of sleep deprivation.
Though more injuries among the pack had meant that he had moved up to second place (again without actually moving past anyone) he began to make basic navigational errors, and wasn’t sure whether a traverse of the Yorkshire Moors was advisable without some naptime.
With his head rested on the surprisingly comfortable forest floor, Hannah Rickman came past and, seeing an opportunity, David rose to follow her into Lordstones.
This encounter was revitalising as Hannah had recce’d this route to
Lordstones before and David, who had been alone for the last 24 hours was able to relax and have a friendly and reassuring chat.
They came into the checkpoint together, but Hannah kicked on across the moors in the small hours of Monday morning whilst David tried, and failed, to have a nap in the tents in the checkpoint.
The following section of the course was surprisingly runable, though by this point there wasn’t much bounce in David’s stride.
After a cheese sandwich and hello in Glaisdale, David embarked on his last leg of around 30 miles across the muddy and undulating Cleveland Way all the way to Robin Hood’s Bay in a time of 54 hours and 14 minutes, in third place overall.
He will now recover and have a long think about whether he will tackle such a challenging event ever again.
Annecy marathon
Charlie Storrie travelled to the Rhone Alpes area of eastern France on April 14 to tackle a marathon in the city that has been voted the best place to live in France, with mountain scenery providing beautiful views.
Run since 1980, this race attracted a field of almost 4,000 for the flat lakeside course. Run on the same day as the Manchester event, Charlie was keen to broaden his horizons and to improve on his time there from 2023.
He has been training very hard over the winter and was aiming for a new personal best, even as quick as 2 hours 34, if all went well.
The days before and after had ideal temperatures of around 12 degrees but on the day the sun came out and this made the final quarter of the race very challenging.
However, Charlie was delighted to cross the line in a fantastic 12th place overall in 2 hours 36.
To put that in perspective it means he ran every mile faster than six minutes and he will now focus on a cooler autumn race.
Monday night running group
The Monday night beginners and improvers group meets at Dumfries Sports Club on Nunholm Road at 6.30pm where organised groups are led over distances from 2km at a suitable pace up to five miles.
Prospective newcomers are reminded that high visibility clothing is required, at least until the end of April. Further details can be found on www. dumfriesrunningclub.org.uk