Portland Marathon / Half Marathon
Friday 22nd January saw 6 Stubbies heading down to Portland for the 3rd marathon/half marathon events in the 7x7x7 Coastal Trail Series: Jane, Drew, Kathy, Karen, Glen and Caroline rented a fantastic 6 bedroom house on Portland at very reasonable prices - £20 per head can't be bad! Thanks go to Jane for that. To keep prices down we shared the catering with everyone chipping in with food and, inevitably, a substantial amount of wine.
The organisers kindly allowed Kathy and myself to start an hour early on the Saturday. This means we get to finish while there's still some tea and cake available.The marathon was a 2-lap course this time, each lap ending with 1.5 miles on Chesil beach ... not much fun! Just after 1/2 way we were passed by the fastest in our group - Drew Briggs. He ended up doing a brilliant time, completing it in just over 5 hours. Kathy and I had the dubious honour of being last. Well ... someone has to do it!! As they passed us, some of the runners did comment on whether we had a picnic with us again this time. Well who wouldn't?
Karen seemed to enjoy chatting her way around the 1/2 marathon route. Karen talking to total strangers? surely not!?
Julie and Rowena also came along for the 1/2 marathon event. They really enjoyed it but hated the beach at the end. At least we were all in agreement. David Eland was also taking part in the 10k event but he's long gone by the time we return from our "day out".
Considering the recent weather, the conditions were really kind. We wouldn't have wanted to risk life and limb on ice and snow on some of those cliffs! We even saw the sun for a while. Caroline Street.
Marathon Results
Winner 3.27
Drew Briggs 5.06 (76)
Glen Street 6.37 (156)
Jane Adlard 6.42 (160)
Kathy McKain 7.31 (170)
Caroline Street 7.31 (171 Last!)
Half Marathon Results
Karen Dean 2.48 (257)
Julie Ashman 3.24 (310)
Rowena Dodds 3.24 (311)
10k Results
David Eland 1.28 (74)