Our Chairman may not have broken his weather curse this weekend, but he did manage to break four hours at last.
“I’ve run 6 marathons before this one and every single one of them has been a warm sunny day.. even those in October”.
I can vouch for that statement. Even when I talked him into his first sojourne over the distance back in october 2015 it was about 20c.
Despite the forecast promising a cool and cloudy day, the sun was still at full blaze for the entirety of the race.
Starting in front of Shakespeare’s old school houses in Stratford-upon-Avon, this 2 lap marathon promises much. History, scenery and more importantly a fast and mainly flat course.
After weaving it’s way past the historic buildings of the town, the course then takes the runners out into the beautiful Warwickshire countryside before they return to the town to run it all again.
Run concurrently with the half race it could be easy to get swept along too quickly. But Glen ran the first lap with a friend who was only running the half.
“Having a running buddy for the first half was great. It meant I kept up a good pace and got myself 7 minutes in hand for the second half. He even carried my second bottle of Lucozade for me and handed it over when we split” he tells me
“It suddenly felt really quiet on the second lap as most people were running the half. I just kept checking my watch and my paceband so I knew I still had a few minutes to spare”
And what a second lap it was! Glen only slowed slightly and came over the line in 3.57.45.
“To say I am happy is an understatement” he beams on Facebook that afternoon.
He has been saying he will retire from marathon running when he broke the 4 hour mark…….
We’ll see……..
