London Marathon Preview

This year the club expects to have excellent representation in the London Marathon next Sunday 25th April, as a number of our men are set to attack the 2 hours 30 barrier. A few of our athletes have already completed spring marathons, in Barcelona (Clare Leckie, a PB of 3hrs 47mins, and Zoe Watson 3hrs 51mins) and Paris (Daniel Mann, PB of 2hrs 56mins and James Perry 3hrs 23mins.)

Your website editors have been asking the London challengers about their hopes and dreams on one of the biggest days of the annual athletics calendar.

Martyn Cryer has yet to touch base with our editorial team and we imagine he is esconced in a warm weather training camp or similar. Martyn ran 2:27.39 on his debut last year and he has been in similar form recently, running 68.31 in the Reading Half Marathon. We imagine he will aiming to get close to the 2:25 mark this year.

Tom Beedell, who in recent years has finished 3rd in both the Chester and Manchester Marathons, and has a best of 2:28.54 has had a couple of niggly setbacks recently and can only target 2hrs 30mins, though he feels that even that may be beyond him this time.

Daniel Steel ("Steely Dan") (right) has steadily improved his marathon PB since his debut in 2011, and he crept below 2hrs33mins in London 2014. This year his training has gone absolutely to plan. He is targeting 2.30 or under and plans to go through halfway right on target in 75 minutes.

Harold Wyber, our former University Challenge winner, has been in the form of his life this winter, running superbly over the country, reducing his half-marathon PB to 71.53, and finishing 2nd in a 42-mile ultra-marathon. He tells us, "I'm aiming for 2:32 - I'm essentially viewing this as a stepping stone to sub 2:30, having previously tried and failed to make the leap from c. 2:35 to c. 2:30. It would also mean that I'd run a marathon faster than any sitting member of Parliament (Matthew Paris, 1985)." 

Simon Beedell made his marathon debut in 2012 with 2hrs55 but by April 2014 he had reduced this to 2hrs45. He says, "I'm aiming for 2:38, which I feel is realistic right now. I may try and push on in the last 5 if I feel good but 2:38 would make me happy."

Tim Prendergast, our partially-sighted Kiwi who runs in the T13 category, is representing New Zealand in the IPC Athletics World Championships which is being incorporated into the London this year. Tim, essentially, a track runner, ran his only previous marathon in 2013, and you can read about it here. Tim writes, "After a couple of wee niggles in the last month things seem to be coming right at the right time. I’m still targeting 2.45 but just a warning that we start a lot earlier than the main field. In fact the start time for us is 9.05, 15 mins before the elite women and 65 mins in front of the main field, so here's hoping the main field doesn’t catch me up!"

Adam Mead has opted to run London on behalf of Alzheimers, which his granddad was diagnosed with last year. He won a club place in the ballot. Unfortunately, his training was wrecked early in the cycle through injury and he has never recovered sufficiently to do the "necessary" training. However he still intends to "go for it" and is eyeing the 3 hour barrier. He freely admits that it could be a case of crash and burn. Adam is dying to get back to what he does best - the shorter, faster stuff.

M50 Steve Lambert writes, "My target is fluid at the mo as me running last 2 weeks has been rubbish. Think the 2 half’s I did in March (Roding and Brentwood) took more out of me than i realised. I ran both pretty hard to get PB’s (1:25) and when i tried to do a long run (20m) around part of the London course over Easter I absolutely died! legs weren’t having it at all. So me lead-up to the race hasn’t gone brilliant :-(. So. first target is to go sub 3:20 and get a Good For Age place for next year. I haven’t actually trained specifically for the marathon. Just been doing ironman training. So if can get GFA then (injuries permitting) can go back next year and have a proper go at it. Would still like to go sub 3:10 though and will set off with that in mind. Hopefully if I die I’ll have enough in the bank to still go under 3:20 :-). Fingers crossed!!"

M50 Alun Evans, like Steve Lambert, is going for a Good For Age qualification for London 2016, i.e. 3hrs 20mins. He ran 1hr 30mins in the Roding Valley Half Marathon and he is feeling confident.

Sidnie Sales (pictured in the Southern 6 Stage Road Relay recently) is running for the Stroke Association and GRACE. She writes, "Basically I wish I had done more training haha! So training has gone okayish. Last year [3hrs53 debut] I overdid it but this year I think I've underdone it! Hoping for anything around 3.30 or under!! I'll be running in my Woodford Green vest. Just gonna eat lots this week and tick over probably run every other day!! I'm quite excited but also very nervous and getting more nervous because I'm on the championship start line!!"

Former international decathlete James Wright, who competed in the British League Premiership in the 100mH and High Jump as recently as 2013, is raising money for Parkinson's UK. James has a base target of 4 hours, but he is eyeing up the 3hrs30 barrier. James recently ran the Silverstone Half Marathon in 1hr43mins. His dad Simon, who introduced James to the club when he was 10 years old in 1992 and subsequently became very involved in the club himself, was voted a Life Member at the AGM on Friday night.