October 10, 2018
Thank you to Lisa for the following write up For months I have watched four of my closest running friends follow their training plans for the Chester Marathon and whilst it sounded like it was going to be a great weekend away I was never really tempted. Fast forward to Thursday night, 3 days before and the offer of a free place to join them all of a sudden instead of being a specatator I was going to be running with my side kick Sophie. My only concern was my ongoing knee niggles but a quick pain free 10k to test and I was ready. After gatecrashing their rooms at the hotel for the night suddenly it was 7.30 am and the Chester fun bus had arrived. With it’s blaring music and a driver who had just got out of bed and had no concern for our safety this just added to the excitment as we made our way to Chester race course. As we piled out we looked a picture of unity in our different club vests, A Sphinx, a Northbrook, two Massey’s (and a half ;-) and a Kenilworth runner! Nerves were building as we chatted to all the other Massey’s and before I knew it we were off. We didn’t really have a strategy other than to finish. We chatted to fellow runners and ran as a line of 4 till around 13 miles and 18 when we back to being a duo. The course was scenic and predominantly flat and it was great to some Massey friends on route cheering. Personally I found miles 20 to 22 a bit challenging but kept this to myself. As we made our way on to the grassy finish back at the race course the cheers were great as we crossed the line together in a time of 4 hours and 45 minutes. This was Sophie’s second fastest marathon and she has raised over a £1000 for the homeless! I never ever thought I would run a Marathon untrained but with Sophie by my side I know together we could achieve anything!!! It was nice to see Simon Ellis at the finish line with a cold cider and prosescco. We were buzzing to hear that our friends had all got pb’s and smashed though the good for ages barriers also! . Fingers crossed for London Marathon Ballot results this week. [gallery ids=“10558,10559,10560,10561,10562”]