Good Luck Joggers for Sunday the whole club is so proud of you all.
Matthew Harvey is going for a sub 2:41 (incredible I am only at halfway point when he’s finished – awesome!!) which is his PB from London 2009.
Katharine Smith who only joined the Joggers last year after starting running in October when 200m seemed impossible, her longest run in training has been 20 miles and she lines up on Sunday 6 months after thinking she couldn’t run to the end of her road.
There’s Cathryn Starling and Ursula White who have trained so hard since gaining club places in October and latterly fallen foul to injury and disease respectively, however if anyone can cross the line this pair can as they’re a pair of determined diva’s. This is Cathryn’s first marathon and Ursula’s second London (previous PB 3:56).
Alan Shand will be running in memory of his ‘mam’ and hopes to achieve a sub 3:30 finish, this will be his second marathon in 6 months after completing the Loch Ness Marathon last October.
Ben Blowes will be running his 5th consecutive London and 9th marathon in total, he hopes to get a sub 2:50 but will be happy with sub 3 hour finish. This may be his last marathon for a while as he’s set to become a Daddy in the summer which means nappies and sleepless nights are on the schedule come June.
Martin Gear is lucky to be on the start line at all and has to be one of Newmarkets luckiest lads as he wasn’t content with getting kicked in the head by a horse last year but had to get a bout of appendicitis after picking up training again and recently plagued with injury which has seen him swim/cycle his way to the line, he hopes to finish sub 3:45.
There’s also Robin Clifford running in the the sub 3hours bracket after his 2008 finish of 2:51 and he’ll have his wife Tanya and daughter Molly willing him on down the Mall.
Louise Hutt has been training with Miranda for her first marathon and couldn’t have picked a better training partner; she’s looking to get around and enjoy the experience but having run with her myself I think she might just do a tad better than get round.
Mary Marsh didn’t have the best experience in her first marathon and hopes to better her time of 4:25 and avoid needing a sick bag all the way home, she’s had trouble with her knees in training but has trained extremely hard putting in some long runs of 21 miles so she’s well prepared.
Greg Davis is looking for a sub 3:15, he’s another who’s trained very hard but makes it look so easy when you see him striding out around Newmarket, his PB is 2:59 and who knows if all goes well on Sunday he just might better that.