Ryston’s Lesley completes tenth marathon

The big athletics event of last weekend, as far as the majority of the public are concerned, was the London Marathon, back in its customary spring position on the calendar after two years of Covid disruption.

Ryston Runners AC had almost a dozen athletes making the start line, one of whom, Lesley Robins, was doing so for the tenth time.

She marked the occasion by coming 50th in the F50 category, crossing the finish line in 3.21.46, for 6578th overall.

This was a personal best time by almost two minutes, a very creditable achievement in any case, but in the London and at 50+ even more special.

The consistency of her split times was the epitome of excellence.

Another recording a PB at 50+ was Wendy Fisher who popped the right side of the four-and-a-quarter hour target, with 4.27.10 for 26276th place and a PB by more than minutes.

Danny Smith posted the fastest time by a club member, finishing in 1156th place in an impressive 2:47:09, adding his name to the list of club members who have run sub three-hours, which has been boosted significantly over the past two weekends.

This was a PB by more than six minutes and set a new club M35 record just after Jason Cooper had done likewise the previous weekend at Boston, meaning the two of them have reduced that mark by more than 15 minutes in the space of a week.

The fastest Ryston woman on the day was Amy Southam, who crossed the line 4542nd in 3.10.47, moving inexorably closer to the club SF record for the Marathon which goes back more than 30 years.

Having run the Manchester Marathon the previous weekend, Julie Williamson and Justin Walker had declared their intention to take London a bit more easily and just enjoy the atmosphere.

Regardless, they crossed the line together in 3.33.08, which for Julie was only five minutes slower than her PB set the previous weekend.

They were in the top 1000 finishers with 9404th and 9406th respectively.

Also running together, Lindsey Clare and Rebecca Tuff, recipients of the club’s two discretionary places this year, finished 37912th and 37914th in 5.11.54.

Tuff, who once infamously declared that anyone whofran over 800m was probably mad, might be about to reconsider her viewpoint.

Jake Whitehouse was the only other club member to run sub four-hours, finishing 16963rd in 3.57.11.

Jane Ashby, not having one of her best days, was placed fourth in the F75 category after running for just over five hours, and Martin Elsegood completed the course, and his own very personal challenge, in 6.26.27.