Ilford AC Press Report. 26th March 2018
Colchester Half Marathon
25th March 2018
Steve Parker took part in the Colchester Half Marathon last Sunday.
The race starts at the impressive Colchester Football Stadium. Runners were treated to a short flying display by the Essex & Herts Air Ambulance before the mass start as a thank you for the money raised for one of the race charities.
The first half of the race is undulating & challenging.
The second part is flatter & Steve was happy that he saved something for the finish.
Steve came home in 1hr 40m 10s for 381st place and 6th M60 on the day.
London Landmarks Half Marathon
25th March 2018
Club Captain Billy Green combined his love of London and Running to take part in the inaugural London Landmarks Half Marathon.
Runners started at Pall Mall, headed past Nelsons Column, Royal Courts of Justice and The London Eye. They continued past St Mary-Le-Bow church with the famous Bow Bells chiming before Zig Zagging around St Pauls Cathedral, The Bank of England and the Monument before hitting the most easterly part of the route outside the Tower of London.
The final 3 miles took runners along the Thames before hitting Big Ben and finishing by Downing Street.
Although slightly overcast, conditions were ideal for running and the entertainment along the route and huge crowds combined to make a great running experience
Billy was very pleased with his run and achieved a PB, breaking his previous best by a minute to finish in a time of 1:50:15. Billy was 1,645th of 9,683 runners who completed the course.
European Masters Indoor Championships
Madrid
19th-23rd March
Ilford Super vet John Batchelor travelled to Madrid for the European Indoor Championships last week. Having experienced a severely disrupted journey to Madrid the 9:30am start for the 3000m on the Monday morning proved a challenge to John. After setting the early pace, John slipped back to finish 5th in a time of 13:42, a minute slower than he had hoped.
The following Thursday evening in the 800m, at a far more amenable time, John was determined to make amends for his earlier failure and sensibly trailed his German opponent for the first 550m, at which point he took off like a rocket and by 700m, with only half a lap to go, had opened up an apparently unassailable lead of 60m on the rest of the field.
Then with 70m to go his legs suddenly buckled and he crashed to the track. After three runners had passed him, he finally got to his feet to almost jog to the finish.
At 10m from the line the German suffered the same fate as John previously had and collapsed to the floor. This left John to pick up a bronze in a time of 3:06.
John observed that Madrid’s 2200 ft. altitude is pretty lethal once you go into anaerobic territory.
Overall though, whilst a little disappointed with how things had turned out, John enjoyed the whole experience and commented that the medals had gone to the right guys.
