2015 London Marathon: Excellent results
The club were represented extremely well on Sunday in the 2015 London Marathon. Our first 3 men finished within the first 69 in the entire race of 37,500 starters and, as a team, they may possibly win a UK Championship prize. Several of our other athletes achieved or bettered their pre-race expectations. And Tim Prendergast, representing New Zealand, won a bronze medal in the T13 category of the IPC World Paralympic Championships which was contested just prior to the mass event.
See our Preview from last week to compare the "before and after".
Photos (from various sources)
Starting an hour before the mass event in very chilly conditions, Tim Prendergast gave the BBC's Colin Jackson a brief live interview before setting off on what is a very lonely road for an athlete with a visual impairment who "can recognise contours between 2 and 6 metres away". Tim would ideally have liked to run 2hrs45mins, but his splits were just a fraction slower than that - and tremendously consistent, mostly hovering around the 20.00 mark for each 5K. Thus he went through halfway in 1:23.23 and came home with a 1:24.00. When one considers the difficulties that Tim obviously experiences identifying his drinks and the shortest racing line... Well, we congratulate NZ's finest on another marvellous performance.
The mass event then got underway. Our favourite to be first Woodie home was Martyn Cryer (pictured below). 
He was rattling off 3.24 per Km for mile after mile, and at 11 miles he caught a very good group of around a dozen men on pace for 2.22. He rode on the back for several miles before drifting ahead of them. Not looking at his watch, he was feeling good and realised that he had just run a 5.09 mile. He maintained his pace until the last 3 miles when he hit a type of wall - not the most solid, some would argue - and his 35-40K split had slowed by 90". He came in as the clock showed 2:25.20, over 2 minutes quicker than his debut last year. He was pleased and enjoyed the event.
Daniel Steel (pictured below) was targeting sub2.30, while Harold Wyber was thinking 2.31 or 2.32. But these two were schoolmates together at Davenant, and there was always going to be a rivalry of sorts going on. At halfway, Steel was 12" ahead (75.10-75.22). At 30K the gap was 27". Steel took another 10" out of Wyber over the next 5K and, although Wyber could see him down the road, he was unable to bridge the gap. Steel crossed the line in 2:30.16 to Wyber's 2:30.56, both knocking a couple of minutes off their PBs en route. 
Steel got some television time as he was right behind "Spiderman", AKA Paul Martelletti who has signed to run for us under the Higher Competition rule this summer, but was busy breaking the world record for a masked superhero just one week after winning the Manchester Marathon in 2hrs17mins.
At the time of writing, we believe that Notts AC (also 12 Stage Road Relay champions) were the champion club, based on the accumulated time of their first 3 men home. Serpentine RC seem to be second. And third, well, it could be between Leeds City AC and ourselves (Cryer, Steel, Wyber), depending on the somewhat unclear rules.
Further back, it was time for Simon Beedell to put one over brother Tom for a change. Tom's preparation had been wrecked by niggling injuries while Simon was sounding confident about running 2.38. Tom refused to back away from his target time in any great measure, and ended up paying the price as his 5K splits fell away from 17.30 to 19.30. Simon, never running slower than 19.00 for any 5K closed gradually, gradually, and then very quickly after 35K, and also overtook Paula Radcliffe, as shown live on the BBC, before clocking a fine PB of 2:36.38, while Tom's painful final miles gave him 2:38.30.
Next in was Adam Mead, who only started running 12 months ago. His training had been wrecked by injury. Then he left his watch in his bag and had to run without - quite an unusual phenomenon given how many distance runners live by their watches and Garmins! Nonetheless, there is a wise head on this young man's (he is 25) shoulders, and he ran a superbly judged race, ignoring his own pre-race "target" of 3 hours and instead running by feel. Back-to-back halves of 1:35.56 and 1:36.33 brought him home in 3:12.29. Now he wants to return to 3K racing! He expressed his gratitude for the place he won in the club ballot and for the support he has been given since joining the club.
M50 Steve Lambert got injured 3 weeks ago and his participation had been in the balance. The pace he set, though, was an uncompromising 7 mins per mile. Until 11 miles, when his calf and hamstring "went". He calculated that he could still run sub3.20 (to achieve a Good For Age guaranteed place for next year's race) by running 8 minute miles to the end. He said, "the support on the course today was astonishing. The encouragement, the cheers, they were the only thing that kept me going. So a massive thanks to everyone who came out." Steve was well inside his GFA target with 3:14.46, around 40 minutes quicker than his PB, which nonetheless surprised nobody because the perception of this man has changed in recent years.
M55 Alun Evans was also chasing that Holy Grail of a Good For Age qualifying time. [Ed. Surely there is a vicious circle of built-in masochism involved in this GFA thing?!]. He likes to get some time in the bank in the first half of the race and follow that with a controlled deceleration. Perfectly executed, really, as he ran 1:34.04 and then 1:41.21 for 3:15.25. Job done, and he can look forward (!!) to next year!
Sidnie Sales paid a harsh price for starting out at 3 hour pace when her target had been "3.30 or under". Her splits showed her slowing after 10K, going through halfway in 1:35.55 and then continuing to decelerate and suffer. She reports, "The last 5 miles were horrendous, walking crying and the worst cramp - I didn't know cramp like that existed!! I could see every muscle in my leg moving!! I was even stopping down Birdcage Walk with 385 yards to go because I couldn't move my legs!!" Ouch! This is an athlete who is going to enjoy a few days' rest! With the knowledge, however, that her 3:38.33 is 15 minutes quicker than her debut mark last year.
Two men who have competed in our track and field team for many years also dipped their toes in the marathon waters this year. High Jumper Gareth Dyball seems to have suffered pretty badly after 15 miles. After going through halfway in 1:47.30 and averaging around 5 mins per K, he ran a second half of around 2hrs 40mins for 4:27.50. And former international decathlete James Wright spent many miles suffering from knee pain. His initial sub6 minute Ks turned to 7s, then 9s and 10s after halfway but he persevered through it all to clock a painful 5:09.02.
Three of our athletes above were running for charity. Links: Adam Mead, Sidnie Sales and James Wright
The day was rounded off in The Chandos pub near Trafalgar Square where many of the aching Woodford marathonians and their supporters got together to celebrate a job very well done in most cases.