ESM had an impressive eleven finishers in this year’s London Marathon, with four making their debut over the 26.2 miles, and five others achieving personal best times.
First through the line for the club, in a time of 2 hours 35 minutes, was 25 year old Rob Wilson. Running his first marathon, he placed 118thoverall out of the field of nearly 35,000. This tremendous performance qualifies him for a championship place in the race next year.
There was a half hour gap till the next batch of four ESM men. Jonny Lane, another marathon first timer, was the first of these, finishing in a respectable 3:10. He was followed a couple of minutes later by the more experienced Steve Elson in 3:12. Steve struggled in the latter stages of the race, however, and it was a below par run for him. Twenty year old Alex Leslie came in shortly after Steve in 3:15, and his father Ian was just 17 minutes behind in 3:32, achieving a fine marathon debut at the age of 56.
Two other ESM men completed the course. Steve Barrington was home in 3:46 minutes, just 20 seconds outside his own personal best. Andy Leung also achieved a personal best time (4:03), slicing nearly half an hour from his two previous marathon performances.
Four women represented the club; three ran a personal best and the fourth achieved her first marathon. The fastest was Simonetta Taccuso with a personal best time of 3:36. At 47, Simonetta easily earns her guaranteed “good for age” place in next year’s race. Beverley Packwood and Glenda Sincock also clocked up personal best times of 4:09 and 4:53 respectively, while Kat French completed the team in 5:26.
The previous week saw two ESM athletes heading to the south coast for the Brighton marathon. This increasingly popular alternative to the London marathon attracted 18,000 runners in its fourth year. On an undulating course and in windy conditions, Chris Brown finished a tantalising 20 seconds outside his own personal best in a time of 3:36, with Andy Sincock achieving a huge personal best, just 49 seconds outside the 4 hour mark.