The official results have not yet been posted, but the Brighton marathon iPhone App lists the following (chip to chip) times for the 26.2 RRC runners:
| Luke McDonagh | 3:11:15 |
| Mark Weight | 3:12:51 *** |
| Ed Brunskill | 3:12:52 |
| Kevin Parker | 3:22:20 |
| Stephen Blakeney | 3:39:02 |
| Ben Downe | 4:00:24 |
| Matthew Pritchard | 4:02:38 |
| Greg Whiteman | 4:10:15 |
| Libby Marchant | 4:10:50 |
| Neil Sunderland | 4:10:53 |
| Zoe Wingfield | 4:19:15 |
| Sarah Pettefer | 4:23:06 |
| Alan Collis | 4:54:04 |
| Kevin Stone |
*** = Mark’s time from his Garmin
Well done to the fourteen 26.2 RRC runners who took part in the Brighton Marathon today, on what proved to be a very warm and sunny day for running. The temperature was somewhere around 19 degreees and without a cloud in the sky and not much of a breeze, it made for very challenging running conditions, especially when attempting 26.2 miles.
Luke, Ed and Mark ran together until about the halfway point, with Luke slowing his pace slightly at mile 15, but then picking it up to come home first for the club. Mark and Ed were only a short distance behind Luke, finishing within a few yards of each other. Unfortunately no chip time has been posted for Mark (running as Steve Blake) yet but I will update this post when a time does get posted. Kevin Parker ran strongly to smash his previous marathon PB by 7 minutes, and Stephen Blakeney put in a superb finish time in his first marathon despite taking a tumble with 200 metres to go. Well done to Matthew Pritchard who also smashed his marathon PB by something like 15 minutes and looked strong all the way round.
Greg unfortunately started cramping up at the 20 mile mark and was forced to walk the final few miles, but still put in a good time and showed the determination to cross the finishing line. Libby also suffered with her asthma due to the heat but Greg and Matthew did a sterling job of keeping her going, and Libby dug in to finish only 10 minutes outside of her goal time. Neil Sunderland ran in his first marathon since 1997 and ran brilliantly to come in 5 minutes under his goal time. I’m not sure what Zoe and Sarah‘s goal times were but they gave us a big smile whenever they passed us which is always a good sign! Update: Zoe tells me this was her 8th marathon and her second fastest. Alan Collis did well to get round in under 5 hours, despite injuries kicking in at 16 miles, and the fact that he hadn’t trained at all apart from doing Parkruns! Despite all his hard training work over the last 3 months Kev Stone was forced to pull out of the race at mile 14 with a foot injury. Really bad luck as Kev had trained really hard for the race and you won’t find many people grittier and more determined to push themselves than him.
Probably a better day for spectating than running, and there was a good turnout of 26.2 RRC spectators to cheer our runners. The Brighton course really is great for specatators as we were easily able to cheer people on at miles 6, 12 and 26. Dave Wilson must have taken his bike as runners said he was popping up all over the place to cheer them on! Well done to everyone who ran!
Update: Video of Mark and Ed finishing (fast forward to 6 minutes 49 seconds): http://www.itv.com/meridian-east/brighton-marathon—were-you-there87277/