Club runners star in London
Six club members joined 40,000 runners taking part in the 38th running of the Virgin London Marathon, which was officially the hottest on record with temperatures of 24.1C (73.3F) recorded in St James Park.
While over 2,000 of the starters failed to finish, all of the club’s runners completed the race, and although the weather ruled out personal best times, they all achieved some good results.
The first two club’s finishers were Phil Markham and Sean Kelly who had both qualifiedas‘ Good for Age’ in the Men’ s Over -45 age group with previous fast marathon clockings.
Mark ham finished in 3 hours 11 minutes and Kelly, who was once again fundraising for the Teenage Cancer Trust, followed in a time of 3.27.
Jennie Trown, who was the London Marathon for the first time, was pleased to finish in 4.36.
She was followed by Paula Morris, also a London debutant and who was fundraising for the Cats Protection League, in 5.12.
Seventy-year-old club chairman Harry Forkin achieved a good age group time of 5.20.
Owen Willis defied the heat to set a new Guinness World Record for the Fastest marathon dressed as a three-dimensional plant (male) category, as he donned a giant poppy in aid of The Royal British Legion and SSAFA.
The record was confirmed by a representative of Guinness World Records at the finish of the race.
In order to set a record, Willis had to complete the course in under five hours, and despite the temperatures which led the race organisers to advise against some forms of fancy dress, he nonetheless achieved the record when finishing in a nailbiting 4.59 minutes.
Willis is hoping to raise £5,000 for the charities, and is planning a repeat performance at this year’s York Marathon
Issy Nicholls represented Yorkshire and Humberside at the British Athletics Road Race Championships, which is incorporated into the Virgin London Mini Marathon.
The event for athletes aged 11 to 17, is run over the final three miles of the marathon course and finishes in The Mall.
Previous winners have included Mo Farah who finished third in the main event.
Issy was selected following excellent results at cross country and road races, and fully justified her inclusion when finishing up in 24 th of 243 in the girl’s under-13 race, and was the fourth scorer for the team which was third overall.