This was the day a group of friends took on the challenge of running 26.2 miles on a rather wet and gloomy Sunday morning in Frankfurt.
The lead up to the marathon was not quite as smooth as could be with a cancelled flight, lost luggage and a 1:30am hotel fire-alarm evacuation the night before doing their best to disrupt preparation - but we didn’t let these minor distractions get the better of us, instead we turned up at the start line even more determined to give it our all.
As most will know by now… a marathon is never easy however well you’ve trained but this particular race resulted in so many incredible performances and PB’s - it was great to be part of it.
First bandit to cross the finish line was Alex Vanstone in a time of 2:51:04, beating his PB by 38 minutes (but that was a trail one). A beautiful negative split bagged as well. So much more to come from him we think!
Fred Levy pulled off an impressive 2:53:08 but by his own admission maybe went out a little hard and struggled in the last 10 miles, not surprising after his great run in Berlin only a few weeks ago - maybe it was too soon to be back in the game? But all these races give us more to learn from.
The next outstanding success was Gabriel Glencross who knocked 14 mins off his PB and came in at 3:09:57 – what a fabulous time! Just before his 30th birthday! We are so proud of you!
And then the surprise result was Ash Broom who the day before asked the organisers if there was a bus he could take if he wanted to stop half way…!! There wasn’t one, so he had to run the whole thing – in a fabulous time of 3:11:52 – for a man who’s not run more than 30 miles in a week since before August, this was an incredible run!
Then we have the magnificent KEJ who pulled off a rather impressive time of 3:16:20 to grab a new PB… Taking 4 minutes of her PB set in Boston this year.
After running with and managing to just about keep up with KEJ for 20 miles before running out of steam – I crossed the line in 3:18:41 to skim a minute of my PB.
The great Michael Maiman ran a brave race – It wasn’t quite his day and the wheels slightly fell off around mile 16, but he still came in at an impressive 3:25:31, not far off his own PB – but he has another bite of the apple in Valencia in December and we are sure he will smash it there!
And then we have the first of the Butler’s. This was Lucy’s first marathon and after running alongside her hubby for 20 miles - she then made Richard eat her dust and pushed on to cross the line in 3:30:44. What an incredible debut marathon… So very proud of her! Watch out everyone – she means business and will be gunning for a sub 3h30 in London 2024! I’m pretty sure she has this in her locker.
Next across the line was the wonderful Emma Thurston, grabbing a 7 min PB with a time of 3:31:03. After a very impressive training block she looked so strong and comfortable throughout and ran an impressive 4 minute negative split over the 2nd half of the race – there’s more to come from her too!
Tim Haughton – happiest on trails – came in just 50 seconds behind Emma at 3:31:53 – also running a comfortable race enjoying it all the way round!
Finally we have Richard Butler bringing up the rear in a time of 3:33:52. After high hopes of a sub 3 hour when signing up in December 2022… He suffered an injury earlier in the year that somewhat curtailed his training but still made it to the start line most importantly and still ran a super race - well done Dicke Butz!
We must also give a MASSIVE shout out to Oscar Unsworth, David Canfield and Gareth Hopkins who were fabulous as the FRC cheer squad – dashing all around Frankfurt via foot and bike to give us support and encouragement at various spots along the course. It’s not easy when you are meant to be running yourself but got ruled out by injury – we really appreciated your support and it was wonderful to have you there for the weekend.
Race report provided by Trevor Ingram
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