Manx Mountain Marathon

The Easter weekend saw ten members of Newport and District Running Club take part in a variety of running events in excellent weather on the Isle of Man. Support from friends and families ensured the success of the team and all enjoyed the spring sunshine and stunning scenery of this beautiful island. Sandra Pattinson competed in three races on three consecutive days recording a personal best in each event: 49:13 for a 10k race in Port Erin, 24:12 for a 3 mile hill race in Peel, and 23:09 for a 5k race in Douglas. Sandra’s time for the 10k comes only days after she set her previous pb at the Lilleshall 10k race – part of the Telford AC Sexarathon series.

In the Manx Mountain half marathon, which includes over 2,600ft of climbing over hills from St. Johns to Port Erin. Heather Hogan really enjoyed her first fell race to finish 39th in a brilliant time of 3:27:32. Glenn MacDonald-Jones coming back from injury put in a determined performance to come 6th in 2:09:18.

In the full Mountain Marathon covering 31.5 miles and 8,000ft of ascent from Ramsay on the north east coast of the island to Port Erin on the south west, the best club performance went to Helen MacDonald-Jones who completed the gruelling course to finish 57th out of 89 finishers – and third woman – in 7:38:41 knocking a staggering 47 minutes off her previous time set three years ago. Sandy MacKenzie finished just ahead in 7:34:32 having a good run in his first attempt at this event. Tony Hall deserves special mention as one of the more senior members of the club completing the event for the first time in 11:00:12 – a marvellous achievement. The fastest club member was Noel Hogan finishing 36th in an excellent time of 6:39:34 having had a harder than expected race than in his 2003 outing. Robin Guy also had a hard time of it having picked up a knee problem midway through, but still managed to finish 53rd in 7:22:59 – a superb effort. Richard Guy also had problems in his first outing at this distance suffering from cramp. Nevertheless, he battled on to achieve an admirable result finishing 71st in a time of 8:20:48. Bernie Holbrook, as determined as ever, put in a cracking performance to finish 66th in 8:09:08.

This was a very successful and enjoyable trip and its certain members of Newport and District Running Club will return to the island to take part in this excellent festival of running in years to come.