Spring Marathon Season
Many ECH senior athletes have been hitting the miles hard since Christmas all in prep for a Spring marathon. Dark mornings, dark nights and pretty grim weather always makes training tough this time of the year. However, marathon plans, ECH training sessions, weekend long run meet ups and goals set kept our athletes motivated.
First up was the very local Manchester marathon on Sunday 14th April. Six ECH athletes took up the challenge and were greeted with good running conditions. Josh Walton was first home with a massive 20 minute PB with a blistering 2.48.49.
Josh Walton in the zone at mile 22
Lee Butler was next posting a 14 minute PB with a brilliant 2.58.34, closely followed by James Hartshorne joining the sub 3 club with another PB in 2.59.05. Evergreen Chris Swire ran a very creditable 3.03.33 and finished a brilliant 19th in his age category. Mark Matthews was flying round but had a tough last few miles dealing with cramp and did brilliantly to get to the finish line with 3.09.36. Another big 10 minute PB came from Dan Kenny producing a solid time of 3.12.25.
Lee Butler (left) and Dan Kenny (right) enjoying the ECH support at mile 11.
James Hartshorne (left), Lee Butler (middle) and Mark Matthews (right) all smiles at the end!
One week later on Sunday 21st April it was time for the World-famous London Marathon. Another six ECH athletes were in action and again got lucky with relatively good conditions. Gavin Browne was first home for ECH with a 15 second PB in 2.39.17. Matt Smith wasn’t far behind running a blinder in 2.43.04 which was a 4 minute PB. Callum Parkinson, Sam Mabbott and Hayley Simpson all joined the PB party posting times of 2.51.22, 2.54.39 and 3.20.18 respectively. Katie Kay had the honour of starting in the Championships start and crossed the line with teammate Hayley Simpson with 3.27.23 ( pictured below).
Marathon Man Andy Sykes completing yet another marathon in Ibiza on 13th April, again raising crucial finds for the Brain Tumour Charity. Andy came home in 3 hours 56 minutes, and given the tough hilly course and extremely hot conditions was truly another amazing effort. That’s 4 marathons in just over 5 months including Snowdonia, Valencia, Tokyo and Ibiza. Inspiring, well done Andy!
