Experian festival of running
The new course for the Half and Full marathon at Nottingham, held on the 16th of September got a thumbs up from most of the runners who run for Long Eaton. The course which on the whole goes round in the opposite direction for the first 8 miles compared to previous years is flatter and therefore times were better. The old name for the race was the Robin Hood Full and Half and prizes were given for the runners dressed as Robin Hood. Of Long Eatons band of merry men Andy McNeil was quickest in the Half Marathon for Long Eaton Finishing 9th and 2nd Vet in a time of 1:12:39, the Pauls of Lewis and Moffett were 28th and 69th with Paul Lewis achieving a new PB of 78:36, Mario Rochelli in only his 2nd Half set a time of 1:35. Shaun Burton running his 17th Nottingham Half Marathon was also celebrating his 20th anniversary almost to the day of his very first half Marathon held in Leicester on 17th September 1987 his time then was 1:44:17 his time 20 years later 1:39:30. There were 22 men from LERC competing, the Ladies had 8 runners with Sarah Tucker 130th overall setting a time of 1:26:46,Nicola Bennett set a new PB of 1:55:17 with Liz Rawding setting a good time despite not training for a half marathon distance recently.
As in the Half Marathon the wind had an affect on the runners especially on the exposed Holmepierrepont section of the course and as the runners had to run almost twice around the rowing course it was hard going. Catherine Benson was best of the Long Eaton ladies with a good time of 3:40:42. Sarah Crannage in her 1st full marathon set 3:57:53 and said she was going to have a deserved rest for a month, and Caroline Waterhouse narrowly missed cracking 4 hours by only a minute. Paddy Fitzgerald set 3:20:02, Craig “Cream Cake” Parker was disappointed with his time of 3:23:36 and hopes to beat that time in Leicester in 3 weeks time. Gareth Murtagh, Phil Wallis and Rob Jackson finished within 6 minutes of each other in a time around 3:30, Bill Sheppard clocked 4:07:31 and Peter Thorburn was very pleased with his time of 4:40:24 not bad for an OAP!
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