Kentish Gazette Canterbury & District
Stokes goes for broke to claim marathon PB
Athletics
Canterbury athlete Adam Stokes took on the world’s most competitive marathon in Berlin this weekend, running a new lifetime best of 2 hours 28 minutes 17 seconds to finish in 82nd position.
The German capital city course has produced 10 men’s world records and was hotly tipped to see an 11th as Breaking2 star Eliud Kipchoge faced off against track legend Kenenisa Bekele and former world record holder Wilson Kipsang.
The weather however, ruled out any possibility of super fast times as heavy rain pounded the city overnight and into the early stages of the race leaving the roads slippery and strewn with puddles.
Former Canterbury Harrier Stokes, now of Taunton AC, didn’t let the conditions dampen his spirits and stuck to his race plan to go through the 13.1 mile halfway point in 1:14.12, picking his way through the field as fellow athletes either succumbed to the conditions or an over-enthusiastic early pace.
As the rain eventually began to let up, Stokes sped up covering the second in 1:14.05 to smash through the 2.30 barrier and take five minutes off his previous best time of 2:33 set in 2015’s London Marathon.
A negative split – where the second half of the race is ran quicker than the first – is the Holy Grail of marathoning and is indicative of a race well judged and paced instead of that of a runner starting too fast and slowing all the way to the end.
Stokes said breaking through the 2hr 30min barrier was a fantastic feeling.
He added: “The last couple of years have been a bit of a battle with various injuries, illnesses and bouts of bad luck stopping my training before it really got going.
“I’m as much relieved as I am happy to be able to move on from my previous best and run so well here.
“Two-thirty is a huge physical and psychological barrier for a lot of runners and so to break through it is a fantastic feeling.’
‘I’ve been working closely with my coach to come up with a training plan and race strategy that would work for me.
“Before I went, a friend wished me luck and told me to be bold and I had that in mind waiting on the start line. I figured to hell with the weather, let’s just go for it and see what happens out there. Well, fortune favours the bold.’
Closer to home, dad, Ian, who has his own European marathon experience scheduled in next month’s Amsterdam Marathon, was testing his legs in the Folkestone Half.
Despite struggling with the headwind on the return from the halfway turn around, Ian, of Canterbury Harriers, finished 25th and second vet-50 in 1hour 34 minutes.
Clubmate Alex Horsley (1:25.50) was fourth and first vet 40 man.
Canterbury Harriers’ Paul Knight ran the Ealing Half Marathon in 1:22.12, achieving 35th position in a race of around 5,000.
Veteran Canterbury athlete Doug Lucas ran a season’s best time of 65.10 seconds over 400m at Dartford on Sunday.
The time allowed the Cambridge Harrier to achieve his goal of running inside his age – 66 and two months – no mean achievement given he suffered a badly torn hamstring earlier in the season.