Howell leads the way as Stratford AC runners enjoy their London Marathon experience
PHIL Howell produced an excellent run as he led home the 12 Stratford Athletic Club runners in this year’s London Marathon, writes David Jones.
Howell clocked a time of 2.56.42, his second successive sub three-hour time in the race.
It earned him 64th place in a highly-competitive age category.
Next home was Tim Hutchinson (2.58.16). Hutchinson’s final weeks of training have been hampered by a niggling calf injury, so to have been able to join Phil with a second successive sub three-hour run required a special effort.
Howell and Hutchinson were nip and tuck all the way round, with each recording identical half marathon split times of 1.25.29, before Howell was able to pull away and end up just ahead.
Pete Evans recorded a splendid PB of 3.06.26, which was more than eight minutes quicker than his previous personal best.
It really is doubtful that they could run the London marathon without Malcolm Bowyer taking part.
He has competed in it year after year and it is a measure of both his talent and ability that he is consistency personified.
It is remarkable to note that this year’s time of 3.11.05 was just 12 minutes slower than his time in 2003. Which at less than a minute a year slower, Bowyer will be running sub four-hour marathons when he is a centenarian!
Charlie Burn recorded a time of 3.26.55 and Waleed Agabani (3.31.41) was 11 minutes slower than his Istanbul marathon time earlier this year.
Emily Adams (3.44.38) was just 11 seconds slower than her 2014 time, this despite problems in the lead up to this race that would have put off most people from competing.
Her 5k split times were almost metronomic in their consistency, with only a 63-second difference between the quickest and slowest. Adams now turns her thoughts to the Chicago marathon later in the year.
Carl James (4.02.27), Claire Campbell (4.16.43) and Kate Hawkesford (4.31.07) will have probably both been slightly disappointed to miss out on 4.00, 4.15 and 4.30 respectively but they all still ran excellent races.
For Emil Gudfinnsson (5.11.38) this was his first marathon and for Julian Johnson (5.44.25), who didn’t get anywhere near as much training in as he’d wanted to, they should both be feeling proud of themselves for having run 26.2 miles in one of the world’s greatest races.
Likewise, James Lawson can also be proud of his time of 5.21.42, completing his ambition of taking part in the prestigious event.
The race was won by Eliud Kipchoge (2.03.05). First lady to finish was Jemima Sumgong (2.22.58).
