Not just the London Marathon weekend
- brian17harris
- 2 days ago
- 7 min read
A truly historic athletics landmark was set today by the men's winner of the London marathon, officially breaking the 2 hour barrier for the first time in a race setting.
Although that probably won't be included in this 36-minute podcast produced by member Dave Musgrave on the history of running, you may want to give it a listen
There was plenty of racing this weekend, so read on to see how and where our members were enjoying their running.
Malvern Hills Trail Half marathon, 25th April
With a great collection of supporting friends and family (including Kate Jacobs) and some lovely weather, under-18 Bella Stickney chose an offroad varied and hilly event for her first half marathon – “the most beautiful half marathon I think I’ve ever seen” according to one club member. {Ed. - there may be some competition for this - see later}.
Bella’s Strava summary - “Absolutely beautiful! Ankle not the best so made the decision to walk a fair bit of the 768m of elevation!”
As well as encouraging Bella, Kate finished 1st lady, adding some more bling to her bulging trophy cabinet.
Well done to both.
1 Daniel Hills (unattached) 1.44.01
14 Kate Jacobs (Cirencester AC) 2.01.55 – 1st lady / FV45
114 Isabella Stickney 2.44.28
235 finished
Jos Randall’s 2.5 Marathons
Some results over the last few weeks had unfortunately escaped the editor’s attention, but I caught up with Jos after parkrun yesterday morning, just before she set off to London to do the unofficial Reverse London marathon as her 3rd race in 3 weeks in aid of charity (see below).
Jos originally got a place to run the London Landmarks Half, an event she explained is almost exclusively for charity runners now. {Ed. – a good one for spectators to get multiple sightings as the meandering route passes (or at least it used to) more or less the same place 3/4 times}. She was running in support of what was formerly called Cirencester Foodbank, now rebadged The South Cotswold Foodbank. That was on 12th April, but she has continued fundraising.
Last weekend Jos ran the Manchester marathon in 5:18.
Finally today (26th) she started at 4 minutes past midnight and finished 5hrs 29 minutes later, having run the London marathon course backwards. What started as just a small bunch of runners has grown considerably and now has its own app, a medal and ? multiple start points.
“So chuffed!! A week after Manchester and through the night with really uneven pavements and traffic. 🥳”
Well done Jos – time for a well-earned rest. As fundraising for charity is front of mind this weekend, we’re happy to include a link in case you want to show your support for Jos’ chosen charity.
"The Chase" Trail Run aka ‘The UK Trail Running Festival’
Susanna Austin had run a trail race with the same organisers last year, so was keen to try the new location. A novelty feature was a prize in each distance race for the fastest LAST 100 metres !
This was the organiser's pitch
“The St Giles Estate is situated in a beautiful location in Cranborne Chase – an area designated as a National Landscape (AONB). We are excited about sharing this with you. Extensive planning and testing has gone into the routes, to offer a fantastic running experience. All routes will start and finish from St Giles House, Wimborne and wind through the heart of the estate. The multi-terrain courses offer some of the most scenic running experiences in the country, with a blend of compact gravel, trail sections, farm tracks, grass and small areas of tarmac.”
Susanna's review of the event -
"It really must be the loveliest location in the country! Hillier than I remembered but lovely. I'm not sure about the 100 m dash at the end. Maybe it made more work for the excellent physio team!"
1 Peter Rowat (Cardiff Triathletes) 1.24.32 (chip 1.24.32)
79 Susanna Austin (Cirencester AC) 2.07.37 (2.07.26)
207 finished
Shakespeare Half Marathon, Stratford-on-Avon
Ian Barrett is in training for a marathon next month, and sent in this account of his preparatory race
"Shakespeare half starting and finishing in Stratford-upon-Avon, on mostly closed country roads. Would recommend an hour up the Fosse Way, especially if the sun is out.
Started conservatively, wanted the early miles to feel comfortable. I was aware of a hill at 8 miles and decided that was the point after which I would push on if possible. It worked out, although couldn't quite drag the time back under 1h25.
Overall, a good marker on the way to Edinburgh in 4 weeks."
Given his conservative start, the old rule of thumb of double your HM time plus 10 minutes for an experienced runner suggests that Ian could be worrying the 3 hour mark if conditions are good - we'll keep our fingers crossed.
1 Chris Kilburn (Mansfield Harriers) 1.10.48 (chip 1.10.47)
58 Ian Barrett (Cirencester AC) 1.25.58 (1.25.37)
2972 finished
*****************PARKRUNS*****************
Congratulations to Gordon Jones on reaching his 250th parkrun milestone, celebrating at the Kilkenny course.
At Cirencester, stalwart volunteer Helen Manners was this week marshalling at the concrete turning point. She must have had the highest number of Birthday congratulations ever, after a tip-off from RD Derek ;-)). Congratulations again Helen !
On the course, Dave Wright was first home for the club. Setting aside last week when he was nursing a slight injury, Dave’s times since he started parkrunning last autumn have been remarkably consistent (possibly rivalling the sadly currently injured Rich Allen). This week he was slightly faster than his usual 22 minutes for a very respectable 75% age-graded.
Behind Dave were two runners who had completed Newport marathon last weekend. Despite a gruelling time at Newport, Gary Wood was pleasantly surprised to turn in his best parkrun for almost 3 years! Brian Harris took it relatively easier, just pleased to be back running after a few days off to recover (quads no longer aching) .
Pam Wheeler just pipped Dave for best age-graded on the day. Karen Higuera didn’t appear in the results but managed to keeping running (unlike last week).
Lorna Harris was running only her 2nd parkrun in 2 years, having been off originally with long Covid and then leg injuries.. She was very pleased with her result, and hopes to build on it over the summer.
Finally, Ben Hilditch ran at officially the most Southerly parkrun event in teh Falkland Islands.
25 April 2026, parkruns
Cirencester: 16 Dave Wright 21.45, 30 Brian Harris 23.10, 71 Alan McAdam 25.55,78 Gary Wood 26.19, 119 Rachel McAdam 27.53, 120 Brendan McCarthy 27.55,150 Pam Wheeler 29.11, 167 Susanna Austin 30.11, 174 Kirsty Leggate 30.24,232 Lorna Harris 33.46, 328 finished.
Carterton, Kilkenny Lane: 23 Paul Timms 23.24, 79 Gordon Jones 750th 28.01, 113 Samantha Timms 31.21, 180 finished.
Moreton-in-Marsh, Fire Services College: 161 Ruth Fulford 36.27, 192 finished.
Ludlow: 45 Richard Edwards 33.30, 92 finished.
Newbury, Victoria Park: 57 Martin Croucher 22.30, 441 finished.
Penrose, Helston: 94 Jonathan Higgs 26.17, 274 finished.
Port Stanley, Cape Pembroke Lighthouse, Falkland Islands: 16 Ben Hilditch 26.21,
41 finished.
*******************LONDON MARATHON******************
Whilst some of us sitting at home were able to use the LM app to track the runners we were following, as usual Sam and Paul Timms were there on the scene as volunteers, marshalling not far from Big Ben. {We also had Jos Randall at the same place providing some video and photos to the Thursday runners group (thanks Jos!).}
On the course, unusually for the club we had 6 runners spread across their 20’s, 30’s, 40’s and 50’s. {Ed. - warning the Chairman may mention this nexy week ;-) }
It was the two ladies however who proved to the best at pacing themselves on the day (using the app’s 5k splits).
· Arguably the most impressive in pacing terms, especially given it was only her second marathon, was Storm Trow’s nicely even pace to 30k followed by a slightly quicker last 10k, rewarding her with that elusive negative split {meant to be the most efficient}. Her time of 3:06:55 puts her into 6th place in the club all-time rankings. Given that Storm qualified to run today with a GFA time of 3:27:11 set in Brighton last year on her marathon debut, her PB has improved by a massive >21 minutes. Storm was very pleased that it all went to plan. Congratulations on a fantastic achievement !
· Having run around 3hr3 at London last year (before joining the club), the more experienced Helena Sexton started from the Championship pen. She sustained essentially an even pace throughout, with every 5k being no more than 2/3 seconds either side of a 6:43 pace. She was delighted with finish time of 2:55:57, which knocked around 7 minutes off her PB, and would have put her 3rd in the club’s all-time ranking (running as part of an Army team on this occasion, so unfortunately not included on the club results page). Many congratulations Helena for a great time.
As a reference point, both ladies were more than 30 minutes faster than they would have needed to be to qualify for a guaranteed place this year.
Turning to the men, first home for the club was James Thomas. He was looking on track to break the magic 3-hour mark (6:51 pace) until about 30k, but slowed over the last quarter of the race to finish in 3:05:10. Nevertheless, this was still a PB, just ahead of his 2023 debut marathin in Abingdon. James was fairly pleased with his time, and he avoided any injuries, but its probably safe to say the marathon is not going to be his favoured race distance going forwards.
Not far behind, veteran of more than 10 LM’s Chris Miller’s 3:07:29 was a couple of minutes behind his running app’s prediction, and only seconds outside this year’s GFA time.
After some excellent race times in his training block, Mike Hobbs was running for the children’s cancer charity Young Lives vs Cancer, and in line with the comment above, here is a link for any donations
Mike got held up with congestion in the first mile before settling into a good consistent pace, but wasn't really feeling it, and took the opportunity to slow down in the last 7/8 miles to help a friend he had caught up with, who was struggling with cramp.
Lastly, David Moss was also holding to a nicely consistent pace for the first 30k or so, and for a moment thought he was going to get round with no issues, but unfortunately “a dodgy hip” caught up with him. He managed to keep going for the last quarter of the race to finish just under 4hr12. We hope than doesn’t cause him anything long-term with his hip.
1 Sabastian Sawe (Kenya) 1.59.30 –world record
4069 James Thomas (Cirencester AC) 3.05.10 PB
4328 Storm Trow 3.06.55 – 6th on club ladies all-time list
4419 Chris Miller 3.07.29
7149 Michael Hobbs 3.20.30
22266 David Moss 4.11.59
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