Bungay marathon success
An eventful weekend in East Anglia saw 3 Long Eaton runners compete in the Bungay Black Dog Marathon. Phil Abbott, Monica Fee and Tom Marriott travelled over to the supposed flat lands on the Saturday afternoon with the intention of a restful nights sleep in a hotel prior to 26.2 miles of hard slog.
Sadly the restful night failed to materialise when the building next to the hotel caught fire and the hotel evacuated.
Standing around in the middle of the night in a foil blanket and jim-jams is not ideal marathon prep!
Still, trials and tribulations aside the runners lined up on the start line of the 2 lap course only slightly concerned with the distortions in the air caused by the heat radiating off of the tarmac - it was a hot one.
Phil and Monica set the pace aiming for a sub 3:15 and despite the first half each lap being hilly managed to get a half split of 1:37:04 - bang on pace. The second lap came with added motivation - the 2nd lady started to come in to view which spurred the runners on and at 18 miles Monica passed her.
Positions continued to swap between the women as Phil dropped of the pace at mile 20 - his 40 mile fell race the week before taking its toll.
Turning into the finishing straight Monica had a 5 second lead and held on to finish 2nd lady in 3:14:07 chip time. 1 second slower than the 3rd lady's chip time! Still, it's gun positions for the prizes and Monica gratefully accepted the glass trophy to go with her PB and VLM 2012 Elite Championship qualifying time.
Phil finished in 3:21 and was just happy to have completed his 3rd monster race in 3 weekends.
Tom Marriot completed his debut marathon in 3:30 - his target time and after a few minutes spread eagled managed a very contented smile.
Mr Whippy ice creams with raspberry sauce 'topped' off the weekend!
This report was brought to you by pabc
Comments:
Click here to return to all news articles.