Press Report 15th April 2014 – VLM 2014  

VLM London Marathon – 13th April 2014

On a perfect Sunday morning for running 16 gallant Ilford AC athletes were among the 34000 plus on the start line at Blackheath for the 34th London Marathon. The club achieved a set of fine results, which included 7 new best times for the distance, showing their winter training program went well

There was another superb performance from the club’s Kiwi runner, Blair McWhirter. Blair ran a well balanced race reaching halfway in 71 mins and moved through the field in the second half to finish in a new personal best time of 2hr 23min 27secs to place 25th overall. This result places 2nd on the marathon rankings for New Zealand for 2014 and earns position 5 on the Ilford all time list.

The next two club runners home both recorded personal best, Robin McNelis with 2h 48m 50s for 531th and Sam Rahman in 758th in 2h 53m 23s.

Kevin Newell and Kevin Wotton completed the Ilford sub 3 hours runners with solid performances of 2h 58m 02s (1140th) and 2h 59m 33s (1349th) respectively.

Recent signing Mike Horsey was another setting a personal best of 3h 3m 55s, while Tony Hyde put a creditable run of 3h 16m 37s. Paul Holloway found the going tough in the second half crossing the line in 3h 19m 08s. A couple of runners making their marathon debuts were James Roberts in 3h 23m 47s and Richard Mould with 3h 41m 22s, while Rohan Alexander improved his best time to 3h 36m 39s.

There were big personal bests from Declan Cullen, who took 45 minutes off on his way to 3h 49m 35s and Satha Alaganandasundaram just missed breaking 4 hours with 4h 02m 39s, an improvement of 41 minutes.

Bree Nordin was the only female entrant from the club finishing 20th in the F55 age grouping with 3h 41m 45s.
The Ilford squad was completed by Peter Spelman with 4m 18m 20s still finishing in the top half of the field.

Event regular Steve Allen race walked the London Marathon in a creditable 5 hours and 12 minutes, keeping diligently to an even-paced schedule. A former postman he donned a traditonal Post Office peaked cap and also raised a tidy sum for Diabetes UK.

Many Club members together with family and friends helped rehydrate the runners cheering them through the water station at the 19 mile mark in Canary Wharf which was ably run by station leader Robert Spelman.