Flora London Marathon

London

April 2009

Congratulations to all the PCRF runners who completed the 2009 London Marathon. The team comprised: Sue Bennett, Barry Castagnola, Caroline Danks, Georgina Edwards, Penny and Paul Furzer, Alison Galloway, Judy Giles, Karl Henson, Kate Pegg, Neil Rutland, Liam Walker.

For some, this was their first London Marathon; others were old hands. All were running in memory of someone lost to cancer of the pancreas. Judy told us afterwards, "My Mum was with me every step of the way. At 23 miles I really wondered if I would make it, but I thought of Mum and why I was doing it........and that's all that mattered."

Heat and injury added to the challenge for some of our runners, like Neil - "My left leg gave up after about 17 miles, but I managed to keep myself going to 21, when both quads decided to tighten in unison and that completely killed my momentum. It was a bit of a walk-jog from then on in because if it wasn't my quads it was my knees giving in, but I managed a sprint finish for about the last mile (though I did get outrun by a Wateraid toilet down the Mall!).

Sue Bennett had to deal with injury before the event, but coped well on Marathon day itself - "Well, what a day to remember! I ran a very safe tactical race; it was too hot and the sheer volume of people made it impossible to run in a straight line! So I ran steady 9½ minute miles (average) and never had to stop once. In fact I had a bit of a fast spurt for the last mile. The sight of the finish line in The Mall was amazing!"

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Liam Walker