Spring marathon fever for BRTZR
As the spring marathon season draws to a close let’s look back at how the Bognor Regis Tone Zone Runners did across Brighton, Manchester, Southampton and London! 46 marathons were ran by 43 club runners with an average time of 3 hours 59 minutes and 17 seconds. 6 of those were debut marathons and 13 of them were a new Personal Best.
The most recent marathon was the London Marathon on 23 April, a total of 15 club runners took part, a large number for the club, and despite the dismal rainy weather a whole host of club members came up to support their fellow runners. Jack Penfold was first to finish for the club in 2.39.02 running the second fastest marathon time in the club’s history and finishing 534th out of 48,597 runners. Christo Oosthuizen backed up his good performance in Brighton just three weeks previous with a 2.51.55. David Rowe won the club ballot and ran a strong race to clock 3:12:02. Chris Gallagher finished in a new personal best of 3.23, followed by Anne Kari-Enes 3.36, Duncan Stephenson-Gill in 3.39 and Emma Smith in a PB time of 3.45.04. Mark Williamson snuck in under 3.50 by 24 seconds. Lisa Broad ran her second London Marathon and got a new PB of 4.26. Stuart Thomson was the other lucky club member to win the club place and ran a time of 4.48, Emma Tidmarsh was also running London just three weeks after Brighton Marathon and finished just 3 minutes 30 seconds under the 5-hour mark. Just after the 5-hour mark was Rebecca Nicholl in 5.05 and Michelle Maxim in 5.16 both running huge PBs. John Abell was running his second consecutive London Marathon and clocked a personal best of 5.41 and Felicity Nowell was running her first marathon at the iconic London Marathon and finished in 6 hours 29 minutes.
Manchester Marathon had just the one club runner in the vastly experienced Tony Holcombe, who had run Brighton 2 weeks previous and still managed to clock a time of 5 hours 5 minutes, 20 minutes quicker than his Brighton time!
Southampton Marathon was also represented by just one club runner in Ben Leney, and it was a fantastic day for Ben! Leney managed to break the 4 hour barrier by the skin of his teeth with just 60 seconds to spare.
This year Bognor Regis Tone Zone Runners had a very large contingent at the Brighton Marathon, a whole 29 of club runners took on the 26.2-mile course.
Christo Oosthuizen was first across the line for the club in 2:51:59, Tom Howell ran a personal best of 3:17:53 improving on last years’ time. Also setting new personal bests were training partners Jess Thomson in 3:28:27 and Chris Crouch who took over 30 minutes of last years’ time finishing in 3:29:15. Nathan Bilham returned to Brighton after a few years and ran almost 45 minutes quicker than his debut marathon to clock 3:31 with Sarah Zacal just an arms’ length behind finishing well within her target in 3:39 for a huge PB.
Frazer Dean ran his first marathon in 3:48, likewise did Marlena Clark just a minute behind Frazer. Laura Williams proved to herself that she can run a great marathon finishing in 3:53. Also finishing under 4 hours were Marzena Sowinska (3:54), Cameron Coe (3:56) and Alan Coombs just sneaking in with a new personal best of 3:59:50. Jon Comins completed his first marathon in 4:01, Karen Vilday ran a super strong race to clock a new personal best time of 4:18, just ahead of Gary Griffiths (4:21) and Guy Hodgson (4:23).
Then came a flurry of the Tone Zone ladies who all trained together throughout the winter, Susi Briggs ran 4:32, Jackie Williamson and daughter Charlotte (first marathon) ran 4:39, alongside Emma Tidmarsh who smashed her personal best. Kirstee Porter and Lucy-Jayne Isitt finished together in 4:44, just 2 minutes before Lisa Wadey who beat her personal best finishing in 4:46 after a tough training block. Michael Fordsdyke (5:02) and Lousie Maddison (5:06) were next across the line, then came Tony Holcombe in 5 hours 24 minutes who also has a marathon next weekend! Sue Woodruff ran her first official marathon and finished in 5 hours 37 minutes. Beth Suter and Magda Kuczera both also ran their first marathon and finished together smiling and hand in hand in 6 hours 1 minute.