MAC members test their endurance in Reading’s Endure 24
Maidenhead Athletic Club (MAC) members have been participating in running events the length and breadth of the country this week, with many of them taking on Reading’s Endure 24 at Temple Island Meadows near Henley.
Becky Atkinson, Anthony Hall and David Pearce ran the event solo, with Becky inspired to run in memory of her friend Chau See.
She had planned to run 100 miles, but her competitive head took over and she finished first, completing 23 laps and 112 miles.
Having run the virtual event last year Anthony got the chance to have a go on the official course this summer. He achieved his 20-lap target and joined the 100-mile club after finishing in 23 hours 51 minutes. David planned to run the equivalent of two marathons in preparation for taking on the Marathon des Sables in October. He was pleased to complete 10 loops and finished at around midnight before retiring to his tent for a well-earned beer.
Sayeed Islam and Linda Szulc, AKA the MDS Sloggers finished sixth out of the 27 mixed pairs taking part and completed a total of 24 laps between them in 24hours18minutes.
MAC’s ‘Strong Girls Club’, featuring
Amy Lovell, Clare Talbot, Ellen Easten, Frances Sille and Jen Francis found themselves in the lead after the first lap, and maintained that until they finished, completing 34 laps and a total of 170miles in 24.08.
‘MAC’s Mediocre’ team featured Chris Lewington, Stuart Atkinson, Melanie Tudor, Denis Murphy, Heather Smith, Margarate Bushnell and Caroline Shrimpton overcame injury concerns to finish well above average, coming 13th out of 106 mixed team groups in a time of 24.34 for 34 laps.
StJohn Ford, Ed Dimmock, Richard Pink, Sandra Koch, Sara Ford and
Nick Sille were in various states of fitness coming into the event, but the Maids in Chelsea team managed 18 laps in total, with Ed running five of those and Nick four.
The Waifs and Strays team of Anushka Howell, Derek Philip-Xu, Julie Whitaker, Marika Karavan, Peter Oldham and Steve Overbury completed 26 laps in 23.59.46, with Marika turning in a captain’s performance and completing well over 20miles. The team finished 62nd in their age category.
Chris Ellis completed the Castle to Coast triathlon on Saturday, starting at Dorney Lake, under the shadow of Windsor Castle and finishing at Brighton Beach. In between there was a 2km swim in the lake, a 110km bike ride over the Surrey Hills to Hassocks in Sussex and a 22km run to the coast to finish. He completed the swim in 47 minutes, the bike section in 4 hours and 28 minutes and crossed the finish line after a ‘brutal’ 2hours45minutes run.
Having been born in Seaham, the Durham Coastal Marathon appealed to Nicola Davies, and she completed it in 2hours04minutes, placing her 89th overall. The run started at Noses Point in Seaham and finished along the coast at Crimdon Dene Beach.