Hanchurch Woods and London Marathon

Hanchurch Woods 5 mileLast Thursday, three members of Newport and District Running Club went toHanchurch Woods for the second race in Stone Master Marathoners' SpringTreble series.The air temperature seemed cool at the start, but things soon heated up asthe race began with the athletes setting off at a quick pace along thepaths and bridleways through the woods.The five mile course seemed to be either flat or down hill for the firsthalf, but made all the runners work hard in the second half as it climbedback towards the finish.Glen MacDonald-Jones and Mark Deighton were in close contention for mostof the race, but Glen managed to pull away slightly to finish 32nd in thefield of eighty four and recorded the time of 35m 11s. Mark Deighton was37th in 35m 36s.Helen MacDonald-Jones injured her knee while climbing over a fallen treewhich slowed her a little as she completed the course in 74th in 41m 53s.The final race in the series is next Wednesday. London MarathonAlong with more than 30000 others, nine members of the Newport club tookpart in the London Marathon last Sunday. Varying greatly in ages,abilities and experience, they had all been training hard over the pastfew months and determined to perform well.Dan Lewis, who attends Harpur Adams had a storming run and kept up quite aconsistent pace, hardly slowing even in the later stages of the race toachieve 149th place in 2hr 40m 36s. A magnificent effort of which he canbe proud.Ed Jopling also had a very good run in the heat of the London streets tocross the line in 3.15.33 and achieve 2034th place, still with 30000 otherrunners behind him.Sandy Mackenzie had had a few problems during his training period, but itdid not seem to affect him unduly as he was able to be 3281st in a time of3.26.59. His training will not stop there, however, as he has other longdistance events booked for later in the year.Pete Johnstone had been training hard and ran at a consistent pacethroughout the race to finish only just outside the three and a half hourmark in 3.30.33 in 3798th position.Ian Atkinson only slowed a little in the last six miles or so and cossedthe line in 3.44.41 and in 5952nd place.Kevin Bright was also doing well, but found the heat tiring and slowed inthe last part of the race to still finish ell up the field in 6394th placein a time of 3.47.14.Lindsay Fergusson had a good steady run to come 10626th in a time justover the four hours in 4.07.17.Julian Withers had put in many miles of training and was a littledisappointed to succumb to the heat of the day, slowing quite a bit in thelast six or seven miles to finish 17622nd in 4.36.19.Heather Hogan, in her first marathon, ran sensibly and even speeded up alittle towards the end of the race and easily broke the five hour barrierto come in 21720th in 4.52.52.Congratulations must go to all these runners for completing what is stillregarded as one of the great physical challenges in the sporting world andfor raising money for their various charities.