Virgin London Marathon, Sunday 22nd April 2018
After witnessing the appalling conditions showcased at the Boston marathon last weekend from afar, the Bels were faced with a cruel game of 'would you rather' as they stared down the barrel of the hottest London Marathon on record.In the women's race, Jane Vongvorachoti led the charge for the Belles and crossed the halfway mark in a springy 1:22:31. However, her hip flexors went on strike with 7km to go which caused the Thai Olympian to lose a few minutes to finish in 2:50:51 - not bad at all for damage control!Not far behind was Georgie Fenn who had just come off a fantastic streak at the National XC and road relay championships. She passed the 13.1Mi marker after 1:26:34 of running and managed to steer away from the enormous positive split epidemic that made the rounds in the second half. She finished in 2:56:38 to shed close to 10mins off her PB! The streak goes on.Closing the Belles' campaign were Christina Pennock, Louise Blizzard and Gemma Farrell who packed themselves neatly in the 3:22-3:29 window.
As for the men, what a performance by Daniel Wallis! The Kiwi showed us all how to properly rock a running cap... oh, and he won the open race in 2:19:40 ahead of Kent's John Gilbert. After a 69min half marathon, Dan was actually one of the very few runners who maintained an even pace throughout the remaining 13Mi, only shedding 1:14 before reaching the Mall. In doing so, he caught Aussie Belgravian Matthew Cox who reached the halfway point about a minute earlier but struggled more in the second half to cross the line in 2:25:59 - still placing 9th overall!Our shot at a team medal thus rested on the shoulders of la bella machina himself, Andrius Jaksevicius. While he isn't pleased with his 2:33:39, we can only applaud his grit and tenacity on a day which saw even the great Bekele fall off the pace. Heck, Tirunesh Dibaba dropped out!New Scottish recruit Andrew Cumine donned the claret and gold but was not officially recognised as a Belgrave Harrier in the results, which must have given his 2:45:14 a slightly bitter taste. Still, this was a great run and we look forward to officially claiming his incoming season as our own.Alex Mills not only claimed a solid sub-3 hour marathon, he also walked home with arguably the most impressive sunburn of the day. While his 2:58:55 is a few minutes off his PB, Alex thoroughly enjoyed the experience and gave his cheerleading squad a big smile as he cruised on past the 22Mi marker. Word on the street is that he was mocking Arne's shirt, according to Matt Welsh.
While the scorching sun topped out at 25 degrees, Patrick McDougall was the very picture of cool. Sporting shades and a black cap, he calmly punctuated his training run with carefully prepared packets of crisps. Anyone who doubts the importance of sodium has never seen Pat jog himself to a perfectly paced 3:18 marathon. Little known fact, he only gave 1:15 back to London in the second half. He had to at least pretend to be tired, right?The Bels closed their ranks with Eduard Egelie, Jon Watts, Jaymes Goymour, Peter Cross and John Waughman who did the vest proud. And of course, we must pay tribute to club legend Alex Luce. After an admirable 1:39:02 first 21km, the heat brought him back to a humble walk until half a mile to the finish where he collapsed of dehydration. If it can happen to Callum Hawkins, it can happen to anyone! We wish him all the best in his recovery and hope to see him back in action very soon.