Waterlogged UK marathons, sunny Hamburg

At least six Heathsiders toed the line at UK marathons this weekend despite absolutely miserable conditions, while some decided it was just too grim to even bother. On the continent fine weather blessed those running in Hamburg, where Mike Lee achieved a whopping PB.

Take your pick of adjectives to describe this weekend’s UK weather, but whatever you choose it obviously was not ideal for racing 26.2 miles. In Milton Keynes runners had to negotiate a flooded car park before even starting their race, which unfolded amid bucketing rain and howling wind. Gabi for one decided against the whole thing and has already signed up for an alternative marathon, in Maastricht, later this month, and I think Jo (Irwin) may have also changed plans. Poor Philip had been due to run Antwerp last week but signed up to Milton Keynes instead after a cold put him off his original race plans – some alternative MK turned out to be. “Crossed the finish line and kept running to pick up bag and straight to MacDonalds for coffee and big mac,” he said. Michael Tant meanwhile managed to run a PB, Adam came under 3 hours, Henry got a 10th marathon under his belt and Agi was our fifth runner at MK. Dan was out on the streets of Manchester, where the weather was probably unsurprisingly also rather … poor. Jane Stephens was due to run the Shakespeare Marathon in Stratford-upon-Avon, but I couldn’t find her in the results. Possibly a good thing if she was hoping to run a marathon given that the race distance had to be halved at very short notice (apparently only communicated via a small announcement at the start, too) on account of flooding. The Bracknell Half Marathon stayed a half, but there too the rain barely let up throughout and the portaloos at the start were reportedly conveniently situated in the middle of a water-logged lawn, ideal for getting shoes and socks soaked through before the runners even started. Alice and Gavin still managed to enjoy it and even shave a few seconds off their PBs (half a minute for Alice, nine seconds for Gavin). All in all, it seems Jo Green had the right idea by going for a Mud Oblivion 10k, a race fit for the weather (results not out yet).

Hamburg was a completely different story, however, with the weather looking pretty nice – sun! Costi came in under three hours, and Mike Lee had a great race to get the massive PB he was on track for, knocking an hour off his time in Edinburgh last year. 

As far as track & field is concerned the first LICC of the season was held at Parliament Hill on Saturday, in addition to a QuadKids event, but results were not available at the time of writing – same goes for parkruns. Wanda was back home in Spain competing against some of the country’s very best long distance runners in the liga de atletismo división de honor. And guess what? It was raining, too! And windy! She ran a 10.16 3000m, far from her PB but a solid start on which she hopes to improve. 

Milton Keynes Marathon, 29/04/2012

20th Adam Mitchell 2:58:15

153rd Michael Tant 3:18:08 (PB)

223rd Philipp Hogg 3:23

497th Henry Hamilton-Gould 3:41:30

1084th Agi Palanki 4:03:04

Hamburg Marathon, 29/04/2012

322nd Constantinos Stavrianakis 2:59:12 

1009th  Michael Lee 3:18:04 (PB)

Manchester Marathon, 29/04/2012

173rd Dan McKeown 03:09:49 

Bracknell Half Marathon, 29/04/2012
282nd Gavin Parish 1:48:23 (PB)539th Alice Parish 1:59:10 (PB)

Liga de atletismo división de honor, somewhere in Spain

3000m

6th Wanda Sanchez 10min16s

8 finishers