Ilford Athletic Club Press Report – VLM  

London Marathon

The recent good form of the endurance runners of ILFORD AC continued on Sunday in the London Marathon. On a warm sunny morning the 10 club members ran the 26.2 mile course from Blackheath to Westminster and were led home by Robin McNelis who came home in 2hrs 52mins 53 secs in 692nd place out of the 35000 plus entrants in his fastest marathon since 2009.[shashin type=”album” id=”115″ size=”small” crop=”n” columns=”max” caption=”y” order=”date” position=”left” clear=”left”] Next home was Steve Philcox, who ran a personal best and broke the 3 hour barrier for the first time recording 2h 59m 00s and Paul Holloway also ran a new best time of 3h 13m 46s. Sam Rahman set off at a good pace for the first half but found the going tough in the later miles and crossed the line in 3h 16m 31s. Nicola Hopkinson ran her best marathon for 7 years with a 3h 45m 35s while Rachel Allen made an impressive debut at the distance with 4h 29m 41s.  Billy Green and Nicola Chester had suffered minor injuries in the last few weeks leading up to the race and their performances were down on what was expected finishing in 5h 09m 20s and 5h 17m 12s respectively.

Two race walkers from the club also took part in the event; Steve Allen clocked 5m 13m 15s and Alan O’Rawe 5h 45m 51s.

Report by Hank on the DLR