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Hatfield Broad Oak 10km - Monday 27th May 2019

Monday 27th May 2019 - Hatfield Broad Oak 10km & 1 mile fun run
Andrew Baxter
Andy Bolderstone
Grant Conway
Peter Craik
Mounir Dahbi
Anna Dingle
Caroline Frith
Maud Hodson
Regis Martin
Alexandra Rutishauser-Perera

Vitality London 10km - Monday 27th May 2019

Monday 27th May 2019 - Vitality London 10km
Stuart Barton
Jakub Czeczotka
Arthur Diaz
Spencer Evans
John Henry
Andrew Howard
Mark Moir
Caroline Moore
Deva Payaniandy
Louise Payaniandy
Martin Quinlan
Antonio Martin Romero
Jay Sangha
Stephen Swan
Jamie Xavier
Samir Younsi

RocknRoll Liverpool Marathon - Sunday 26th May 2019

Simplyhealth Great Birmingham 10km - Sunday 26th May 2019

Vitality Westminister Mile Volunteers - Sunday 26th May 2019

Vitality Westminister Mile - Sunday 26th May 2019

Craig reports: Race report incoming:
So it's been four years, four damn years since I've competed in a mile race of any description. And upon arriving at the race village at 07:50...after waking up at 05:30, aka silly o'clock...the first thing on my mind was finding the loos (which is super important before a race). Not long after proceeding back on my way to the bag drop, I ended up getting a tap on the shoulder from a friendly face I haven't seen in ages, Jay Sangha. We were having a catch up whilst waiting for all the other volunteers from ELR to meet up, and needless to say it was nice to see everyone else before the race, as it put my mind at easy briefly. I say briefly, as the nerves crept back in again, as me and Jay were working our way towards the starting pens.
Whilst in the pen I felt alone, yet not, as everyone else must've been feeling similar. But I got talking to some new friends I made in my wave, and all we could think about was the race ahead, also talking about our previous race results to whittle the time down. It was also reassuring to see Euan and catch up with him before we set off.
In the final minute before the start, everything was cramped, and I was under no illusion as to how tough the task I had ahead of me would be. "Knuckle down and focus", is what I was trying to tell myself to keep calm.
And then...the klaxon sounded, and we were off. The first 400m were but a blurr (actually, the whole damn thing was), I got a brief shove from someone beside me, and that ticked me off into overdrive, setting a stupid 400m time of 1:12. By the time I got to 800m, it was a more realistic and representative effort of 2:32, but the last half of the race I ditched the clock, and looked at my watch to gauge my pace. It was still gradually increasing, but given where I'd gotten my pace to there was no way in hell I was giving this opportunity up. With around 300m to go, I threw what little energy I had left at it, and crossed the line in 5:20.
Now by self admission, that was a PB I could never of imagined, as seeming as my original goal was to finish just under 5:30. And seeing my fellow ELR's at the end...at the goody bag volunteering station...brought a wry smile to my face and a sense of elation.
As I was getting changed, someone mentioned about the official times being sent by SMS. So I checked my phone, and my god could I not believe it. The final result was a 5:18, and a PB by 16 seconds.
The only downside to the race was the pollen levels were horrendous, as it left quite a lot of people in coughing fits, myself included...I found that aspect quite funny later on though.
It was also nice to have met up with Jakub, Jay and Robert, after the race was over. And we got talking for a fair while before I set off for home with Rob.
All in all, 4 PB's in 4 weeks, it's been one awesome journey, and one that now has to come to an end for now. As there's something much bigger planned for the week after next, but I'll leave you all in suspense for that one. ;)
Well done to all the runners and volunteers today, you were all superb. Also good luck to all of those competing in the Vitality London 10k tomorrow, May the force be with you!!

Run Through Velopark Half Marathon - Saturday 25th May 2019

Zoila's report: Lee Valley Velopark Run through half marathon Race Report
Having had a few niggles recently I woke up knowing that a PB was not going to happen. However. It wasn't the niggles that led me to have a not so great day running. It was my sugars levels that let me down.
Everyone who takes part in sport in expected to have bad race days, I have been lucky enough that in the time I have been running this hasn't happened too much, and when it has, my type one diabetes never had anything to do with it. It was always my lack of training.
When I woke up today my sugars levels were ideally higher (at 11.2) than I had wanted them to be, which lead to me misjudging how munch insulin I should give for breakfast... I still reduced my baseline insulin/ background insulin to the minimum as I do normally 2 hours before any form of exercise to prevent any sever drops.
I tested again 5 minutes before the race and my sugars were even higher?! 17.4. Luckily I am on an insulin pump, and the handset will inform me how much insulin I have on board. I had about 1 unit left. This should be ok to bring it down to a safe level. I set off with a very good pace which I was happy with. Then realised I had forgotten to start my garmin so I spent the whole way round trying to calculate when I needed to pull off across the finish line...
Luckily my partner was there to help me manage and advise me on what to do. We did a blood glucose test at mile 3. Great 11.7 perfect. Safe. My pace was good. I had also just had my first pick me up glucose gel.
Getting to mile 5 and I started to feel tired, it was a very hot and humid day and the clouds that tried to rain on us had completely disappeared. My pace had dropped quite a bit and so I tested at mile 6 again. 4.2. Even though this is in the normal range for people without diabetes I had a set rate of insulin going so I knew that if I were to continue I would drop to dangerous levels. So I forgot about any possible PBs. Suspended my insulin, and had to have more regular intakes of gels and testing more often than I would normally.
I started to feel better and my pace picked up again. My sugars being this low had knackered me out. I tested again every 2 laps and they were at an OK level (around the 7 mark) So I continued with the gels. I got round. Even though I didn't feel like I had a good day running. I was only 3 minutes slower than my PB: 1:38:22, and was the first lady across the line, and my sugars were at a good level.
I understand that everyone has bad race days, and I have had them in the past. But today I had a bad sugar day which meant a not so great feeling race day for me.

parkrun - all venues - Saturday 25th May 2019

Liz ODonnell:- In Berlin with work so did Hasenheide parkrun today.
Lovely course and very friendly crowd. Cut it a bit fine with the flight
home so pity the people who had to sit either side of me on the plane in
my sweaty kit. Definitely worth the effort though! #ELRonTour


Alexandra : Fifth country where i ran a parkrun !
Gorgeous irish one in the forest !

SuperSports 10 Mile , 2019 International Run Series , Thailand , (Race 3 of 5 Bangkok - Sunday 19th May 2019

Virgin Sport Hackney Half Marathon - Sunday 19th May 2019

Craig Livermore:-The Build Up:
So the build up to this race has been far from ideal from a mental standpoint, as three weeks ago, my nan suffered a fall and broke her hip. This left me all out of sorts, and I felt broken inside. This lead me to think of a way to alleviate my mood, and so I turned to the one thing that usually perks my mood up, parkrun.
I felt that the only way to cure myself, was simply to throw every fibre of my being at it. The end result was a surprising 18:37, a PB no less. Little to my surprise this wasn't a mere fluke, as a week later I decided a change of scenery was in order. So I went to Mile End with the simple mindset of just beating my previous best time from over a year ago, this stood at 20:37. I gunned it off and never looked back, only thinking when I might fade. The worrying thing was I didn't, and I netted another PB by a mere second, 18:36.
And now we get on the the Half in question.
The main event VSHH:
I must admit, after a heavy work week and my 5k PB's, I was a nervous wreck. I mean I had set myself up perfectly for this, but that's the scary prospect, venturing into the unknown, you never know what to expect. Alas I somehow caught the back of the ELR group heading to the venue, a nice unexpected surprise that kept my mind off the race. It was nice chatting with a few people before the race, we had the group photo taken and then me and Jacob proceeded to the bag drop. We also happened to bump into Arthur whilst we were there, had a short-ish chat and a group photo, but then I had to dash to get everything else sorted.
I got chatting with a guy by the name of Connor, he recently moved from America to London due to work. We got talking about all kinds of things, but what stuck out to me is that he had only started running 5 days ago (after a 3 year hiatus), and was aiming for a 1:15 - 1:20 for his first ever half. If you think that was nuts, he had the number pinned to his chest...I mean his actual skin, the guy was topless if I hadn't mentioned that before.
Here we go, 9:00 am beckoned and we were off. Immediately I knew I was out of my depth, and started off to quick as a result of being surrounded by sub 1:10 and 1:20 half marathoners. So sensibly I "tried"...and note the emphasis on tried...to back off into a more sensible pace, which to be fair I did. Stuart Kelly passed me somewhere after the first mile, we said hi to one another and wished each other luck, and it was back to business.
I was sinking back into the pack at a steady rate, not a problem as that was part of the plan anyway.
It was all going well for 5 miles at least, but I was starting to struggle due to the humidity picking up and my energy levels dropping. I took a gel during the 6th mile...hence a drop off in pace...and tried to pick the pace back up for the subsequent mile, but after that any thought of being in the 6:40's was well out of the window. I was suffering cramps and heat exhaustion galore, yet I still persevered on. It was nice to see the ELR lot at the 8.5 mile water station, you guys and gals gave me a lift when I really needed it, much love and thanks a heap.
I somehow managed to speed back up again in the final mile, seeing one of my mates with his wife cheer me on. And that gave more fire to my armoury, as when I looked at my watch with half a mile left, I noticed 1:25 slip out of sight. But that was fine, sub 1:30 was the goal and target, as I haven't hit that in three years, and with one final push and a mad dash to the line it was over.
Finally, a result I've been longing for that has eluded me for long enough, a PB by 1min 40secs, 1:28:12, and my 3rd PB in 3 weeks. What has contributed to all this? I have no idea, but I'm just going to roll with the punches at this point.
First off I'd love to thank all that came along to spectate, you have no idea how much it elevates me when I'm hitting a wall. Secondly, much love to all the ELR out there, both runners, marshals and spectators alike. I'd also like to thank everyone from strava for their messages, it really brought a few tears to my eyes to say the least, you lads and lasses are awesome.
But this isn't over yet, I still have the Vitality Westminster Mile to deal with this weekend. Kind of hoping I haven't lost my touch on the mile front, as it's been around 4 years.
Anyway, well done everyone on your achievements and results. I hope you all had a great time, and see you Wednesday!!

Jacob Stevens:- Another Hackney Half report. Hackney 2017 was my first half - the race that got me motivated to start running properly - so running it again, this time as part of such a great club, was a bit special. It was really nice walking from the station with everyone - so much more enjoyable than the first time on my own, not knowing what to expect. The start was well-organised (no bag drop queues despite the size of the race - 24,000 runners apparently), and after the obligatory ELR photo and a short warm-up, we were off.
I wasn't sure how well the race would go: having been too busy to run much over the winter, my spring training had been entirely focused on the Manchester marathon, so I hadn't done much in the way of specific HM training (tempo runs etc.). It started off well, but sure enough, I wasn't able to sustain PB pace, and by half-way my energy levels were really sagging. Supportive shouts from the ELR gang at the mile 8 water station helped me get through the long section by Vicky Park, but after that it was pretty tough. I managed to speed up slightly in the last mile though, ending up with a time of 1:32:11, just 30 seconds slower than my PB at Royal Parks last year. Pretty happy with that, given my lack of preparation, and I really enjoyed the event - a good route with great support and entertainment. Beer and a full English breakfast with the club at the Coach & Horses was the icing on the cake!


Becky Evans:- (Hackney Half Race Report ... (my mixed feelings/outcome!)
Hurrah, i did it! (1.51:01) my first half marathon.
Boo! I have a bloody calf injury.
I have always run a few miles here and there over the years to keep fit, alongside other exercise, but in June 2018 I decided to join ELR so i could run a longer distance (10K) on a regular basis. I knew that i was unlikely to do this alone, but maybe if I tried running with a group it would motivate me to do it, especially when it's cold or wet.
A year later, and I am a regular. I LOVE Wednesday evening runs, chatting to range of fabulous interesting people and not having to think about running routes. I force myself to Ashton track most weeks (I have no excuse as I have to drop my teenage son and his mates there to do football training) and although I hate the thought of track, I always feel great afterwards.
Along the way, I have also completed the Chingford League races (they fitted in well with a busy family life) and thoroughly enjoyed them. Then I joined a few of the Sunday social runs which I loved (especially the coffee, cake & conversation at the end!).
Logical next step - enter a longer race.
The Hackney Half came highly recommended and lived up to it's reputation - lots of music, dancing, cheering, banners and encouragement along the way. (except the men dressed as devils holding pizza and chilled wine with a banner saying 'You deserve a rest!)
But before that - plenty of moral support from ELR friends who were able to answer all of my 'silly' questions before we started, kept me company and took my mind off the race as we waited for about half an hour to cross the start line.
I had had a sore calf for about a week before the race, and it felt okay, as I had rested it for several days beforehand. I felt that I had prepared really carefully, so was annoyed that I should have this 'niggle' just before a race. I knew that I must not run too hard as it was likely to flare up again. I ran at a reasonable 8.30 min mile for most of the first 6/7 miles and the calf seemed okay, if a little sore. I counted down the minutes to mile 8.5 where I knew ELR would be supporting (and they were - many many thanks to all!) Whenever I saw people I knew or heard some rousing music, I got 'overexcited' and had several 'mini sprint' sessions along the way. By about mile 11, my calf was really hurting and I just wanted to get to the end. I kept going, I found the last two hills hard work (thank goodness Marc & Sonia were there to help me up those) and finished in a time I was really pleased with 1.51:01 (10th woman in my age group). It was probably my 'silver' time (scale according to Maud which I find helpful).
However, walking to the pub afterwards I could feel my calf swelling up and it has been sore ever since. The entire bottom half of my right leg is red and swollen. Going up and down stairs is painful. I've been using the RICE techniques ever since (luckily didn't have work today) but i am GUTTED that I now have to rest it and I am unsure how long I will be 'out' of running. As I write this, i am really jealous of those of you heading to track tonight and wishing could be on my way there too. I also HATE the fact that I am unlikely to make Wednesday's run. I know that this is hopefully just a minor set back, and I am desperately hoping I will be back and ready for the ELVIS series I have signed up for.
So. I'm with you in spirit, but may not be with you at club for a while. Any recovery tips gratefully received, i thought I would give it a few days and see how it's going... but wonder if I should seek any professional advice?
All the best - Becky Evans (feeling sorry for herself).

Virgin Sport Hackney Half Marathon - Sunday 19th May 2019

Stuart Barton reports: Hackney Half Report
Marathons are stupid but a half is a different thing, today I did not know how it was going to go as I struggled at parkrun yesterday.
Meeting with so many ELR always help me, we met at Leyton and walked in the village. A great set up but not enough toilets, photos taken and baggage dropped if we then bumped intoMaya Goodwin who told us the toilets at parkrun were empty, a great call, we all got into our pens and started more or less on time, I started with Joanna Wood for the first 2 miles, then we got split up. I started to feel like today was the day for a PB. The miles passed and I spotted Alexandra Elise a few times. The ELR water station was as expected amazing,
You guys are all amazing such a lift at the perfect time,
The last 2 miles and I started to struggle, who knew Hackney had hills, I was on for a PB maybe sub 2,
The last mile and sub 2 was not a possibility but I knew a new PB was mine.
Finished in 2:02:00 that’s 5 minutes faster than my old PB.
Once again to all at ELR I get so much out of the club,
A few drinks at the pub afterwards was well deserved.


Lee Rand:- Hackney Half Race Report
I've never written a race report before, I've never felt worthy. Today is different, today I am feeling all the awesome.
I haven't been attending the club for a while as I've been busy saving the world and turning my flat into a psychedelic head-mash.
I have been training though, training a lot with Hackney in mind.
I have a friend down from Lancashire to race and was lucky to meet with Stuart, Joanna, Cat and a few others before the race.
My pace felt good, I was keeping at about 8.50. I don't actually know what that means but I felt fast and slightly sick - that's gotta be good. right?
The water stations were a mess. I skipped one because of the queues, then at 11.5 I needed water bad. The station was manned by children with no adult help when I was there and my heart bled for them. That knocked a minute off.
Then I arrived at the ELR station. Really well run.
I was actually delirious at this point. I think I tried to snog Sandra, I almost asked Don to marry me and just dribbled at Jonathan.
Seriously, that was such a boost! Cheers guys!
A couple of KM to go and I was completely out of steam.
My trick of milking the crowd by pointing at my name and begging them to scream for me had dried up (but damn that works)!
High fiving babies had also started to fail to hit the mark, especially as their mothers were crying and running away from me.
Then I could hear my name being screamed. THANK YOU SO MUCH Marc and Sonia. You have no idea how much that helped.
2:01:41 PB.
Fricking ace.
Cheers guys.

Virgin Sport Hackney Half Marathon - Sunday 19th May 2019

Alice Barrett:- This is my first report as this is the first race I have truly enjoyed, so I apologise for the length. Hackney Half was only my second half so I woke up feeling quite anxious. I was keen to improve on my previous time and wanted my time to be 2 hours and 30 something.
It was lovely to meet everyone this morning at the station and start the day with Stuart’s wise words. When arriving at Hackney it instantly became my favourite race after getting given free crisps and free protein bars before even making it to the bag drop.
We waited ages in the start pen but thankfully Maya and Bella kept me entertained especially Maya Goodwin who was saying what we were all thinking. As we crossed the line we were told the first runner was going to finish in 15 minutes which made me fed up as I knew they would have their first beer before I did 5k.
I broke the race down in my mind to complete 10k and then aim for the ELR water station, then a park run and the last bit would do itself. I enjoyed the race and had a huge boost at the ELR station it was so lovely to see some familiar faces.
I then aimed for 10 miles as after the 8.5 my legs were starting to hurt. I had a lovely boost at 10.5 miles when a group of children were going wild saying 'it's Alice'. I was extremely motivated even though I quickly realised I was being over taken by a man dressed as Alice in Wonderland.
I then reached 12 miles and was told that the last mile does itself,it doesn't! I began to really ache and looked at my watch and realised I could get a good time. I then gave it everything and finished in 2:28 which was 14 minutes faster....and I was smiling!
Thank you so much to the ELR water station you were honestly the most organised one on route

Liz ODonnell:- Infrequent attendance at club recently but so good to see everyone at Leyton. Thanks Stuart Stupot Barton for organising. I loved the run today, really enjoyed it. Was so happy to see everyone at the water station. Thanks so much volunteers, the thought of getting to you kept me going. Rachel Le Roux and gang were the best water station en route, thanks Sandra Hiller, Bernadett Kalmar, Don Bennett Andrea Waller for the cheers. 2:59 but I know I need to work on my speed, if nothing just to spend less time on my feet! The support of the crowd, even at the tail end of the field was amazing and I'll be back next year ( hopefully faster).



‎Rajeshwari Parthasarathy:- Hackney Half 2019 race report( and my very first race report here) : Finish time 02:21:06
Background:
I joined the club in Oct 2018 and was pretty much a non runner then. I have been very regular with Wednesday club runs and progressed from being in the Improvers group to the 09:30 - 10:30 pace group, which greatly helped me with my trainings for the half marathon ! It helped me built my stamina and now 6-7 miles is quite doable for me.
Race Day:
19th may: This being my first Half marathon ever, I was quite nervous and was planning to just completing it. Timing was not imp as any time would be a PB for me:) meeting the ELR at Leyton this morning was great ! Got to talk to a few whom I had never interacted with and then there were a few known faces. The crowd in the morning at the Hackney village was quite overwhelming, the queue at the loos, bagdrops, rushing back to the H Pen after the bag drop! I think I was more exhausted from the early morning start , travel to the village , wait time till the race started rather than the race itself:) Saw a few more ELR's at the H pen! All the while I wanted to follow the 2:30 pacer( as I am not too good at pacing my runs on my own) , and just before the race started, I changed my strategy and decided to stick to the 2:20 pacer and started following the 02:20 pacer, plan was to drop back to 2:30 pacer at the end when I slow down. I had no ELR's running at my pace and hence was always on the look out for anyone I knew around me, but there were none. 8.5 miles at the ELR water station , could hear a big cheer for the club which greatly helped! The last 1-2 miles were the hardest due to the uphills while entering the Hackney village but somehow dragged myself to the finish line! Quite happy that I kept running most of the distance and did not resort to walking very frequently in b/ w the run.. I was able to follow the 2:20 pacer throughout the race till the 12 th mile ! Completing the race in 2:21:06! . Quite happy with my timings as I was hoping for it to be somewhere slightly above 2:30 initially!
All in all, had a great day ! And have a great feeling of accomplishment having completed my first HM today! A big thanks to ELR club, runners , volunteers at the 8.5 miles and my family for all the support provided for this day to be a success for me!

Joanna Wood:- Hackney Half Marathon race report.
Having had some good training runs and 2 PBs in a week for my 5km & 10km recently I was hoping for a hat trick but it wasn't to be
I did try hard though, my first 5km was 27.42 - considering my PB 27.24mins I was flying. Same for 2nd 1/4, got to 10km in 57.34mins - my PB is 56.09!
I was chuffed but then hit a wall at mile 8. My legs just didn't want to move and having missed my mum at 3 of the points we agreed I felt a little downhearted, it's amazing how the support of others keeps you going.
Saw some ELR at the 8.5 mile water station who looked frantically busy! It was the first one I'd actually been able to get to on the route as the others had just been soooo busy. This was the first time I hadn't taken water with me as I planned to take some at each station so I think this threw my race plan from the start.
It was muggy in some places, ear shatteringly loud in others with supporters and overall a good route - but I don't know where all those hills came from, they weren't there last year!
Anyway I managed to finish in a not too bad 2hrs 16mins. 13mins faster than last year so a pretty good course PB, my fastest half marathon in 4 years and only 4mins away from a real PB. Got to be pleased with that effort!
I'm now on the hunt for a flat half to get under 2hrs 12mins which I know is in me.


Maya Goodwin:- Hackney Half gives me Bad Zen. I keep entering it and going back to it in the hope that I will change the Zen to Good.
It's the race village that gives me the bad zen I think. It's just SO flipping busy. Last year I spent a bazzilion hours in the toilet queue. Anyway. This year I had the BEST IDEA EVER. Shh. It's a secret, but I found toilets with no queue. None! And they flushed! Shhhhh.
So I started with good zen. I drop my bag off and go to my pen. My pen is the absolute last. Sigh. I hate that. Most ELR are in the pen TWO in front of me! But I find Alice and Isabella and we moan together. We didn't cross the line until 9.45. By then I was all Bad Zen, I'd had enough time to worry myself than think about how far there was to go.
This year I've been delighted with my race times. Absolutely delighted. I've finally refound a bit of pace, and more importantly, stopped the walk breaks. My half PB is 2:24. I had my eye on 2:20 this morning. And finally we are across the line.
Hackney Half is a lovely race. It's pretty flat, and the support is outstanding. The charity cheer stations are dotted all round the course and lots of the local clubs have cheer stations too. Run Dem Crew is literally like running though a nightclub. It's ace! And the purples are always there at the end. The lovely Taffy from EERR kept on catching me up and filming us - that made me laugh. And then there was YOU. At mile 8, I wanted to stop and walk and hug you all, but I just kept on going.
But here's the thing, right from the off, both achilles were hurting. And my right knee had a stabbing pain. Oh no. My ankles are always a bit sore, but the knee is a new thing. I thought I might have to stop at mile 2. But then it went away. It came and went though the race. But because I knew it would go away again I felt ok running on it.
I kept on running. I took a gel while running. I ALWAYS walk for a gel break. I don't even count those breaks as walk breaks. I didn't stop for water, not even at ELR. I knew once I stopped that would be it, and the stations were a bit of a bundle, and the cups looked tricky to manage while running. I was getting tired though. I haven't run more than 10k since the Bristol Half in September, and it was starting to show. At 9.75 miles I gave up and walked. And that was pretty much it. I saw my goal of 2.20 slip by. Then 2.30. But I was just so tired I didn't really care. I saw Jimmy at 13 miles, and I was even walking then! (Sorry about the swearing Jimmy COC )
2:33 on the nose. A course PB though, because like I said, Hackney gives me Bad Zen, I've never done good times there. But I think I was also a fool to think I could chase something that I hadn't put the work in for. And I'm really pleased with the 9.75 miles without walking. So I'll take that. And train for Bristol in September.

Virgin Sport Hackney Half Volunteers - Sunday 19th May 2019

Paula Bedford:- A big thank you to to the lovely ELR volunteers whose cheers
and support really made my race. I was feeling pretty done it until I saw you all
and got a real boost afterwards . You are all stars for helping, without you it
wouldn't happen xxxxx


Rachel:- Well done to all the runners today at the Hackney Half, and a Big Big
Thank You to all the volunteers who helped out today and always do, these events are
a big deal for the club which in return we receive race places or money that goes
towards food for the medals night, ELR birthday celebrations, Christmas do etc so
without you people we wouldn't be able to do this, so it's very important we keep up
the good work and continue to volunteer as much as possible!

Dobbs Weir Double Marathon (2 of 2) - Sunday 19th May 2019

Dobbs Weir Double Marathon race report
Nathaniel Dye often messages me about crazy races he thinks I might be tempted by - he is a Bad Influence. Anyway, having finally got off the fence and entered the Last One Standing again, I found myself once again needing to panic-buy my training, with time running out. Last year I ran 20 miles every day for 7 days, so this year I though I would up my game and make it 26.2. And just plodding round the streets by myself gets a bit monotonous, so I though I would enter these races, which would then become days 3 & 4 of my training week.
They're very small low-key races - 33 finished on day one, and 23 on day two, with 8 DNFs. Some people did 'just' one day.
Day one was almost all trail, much of it alongside the Lee Navigation & the New River, with the odd sharp climb - both days had just under 1000ft of climbing. A decent 'Ronseal' sort of day - nothing big or clever but consistent enough. Nice to see former ELR Bozenka - we ran together a bit.
Day was more road, but also some really nice bits of woodland & riverside paths. We were supposed to do one large (24 mile ish) loop, back to almost the start then the small loop, but the leaders went out on the small loop first and almost everyone followed them. After a bit of what-do-we-do-now-ery, the RD said just go out do the big loop, come back over the bridge and in to the finish.
Felt pretty sluggish to start with but got going OK. There were a few of us going at a similar pace so little groups & pairs formed and re-formed, and we helped each other with navigation (the routes were nominally marked but really you needed your own directions).
Again decently consistent until the last 3 miles or so, when I allowed myself to get faster (8.38 for mile 25), which I will probably pay for tomorrow.
Yesterday 12th place, 4th woman, 1st F40-49.
Today 13th place, 3rd woman, 1st F40-49 (although I think I was probably kind of 2nd really - there was a bit of confusion as to which bridge to take back to the finish - I think the 2nd place woman took the shorter route - pretty sure I overtook her with a couple of miles to go). Doesn't matter as there was only a trophy for first.
4.42.31 for day 1, 4.44.56 for day 2 - I was the quickest of the women who did both days.
Now just got to keep it going for another three days...

Rush, Nuclear Races 12km, Brentwood - Saturday 18th May 2019

Para 10m - Saturday 18th May 2019

Dobbs Weir Double Marathon (1 of 2) - Saturday 18th May 2019

Hackney Community 5km - Saturday 18th May 2019

Richard Potter 21.34 182nd to be confirmed.

parkrun - all venues - Saturday 18th May 2019

London 5k Fest at Lee Valley - Wednesday 15th May 2019

Velo Birmingham 100 mile Cycle - Sunday 12th May 2019

Essex Sportive Cycle ride - Sunday 12th May 2019

25th Halstead & Essex Marathon - Sunday 12th May 2019

386 finishers

Sunderland 10km - Sunday 12th May 2019

Essex Cross Country Series 10km, Hylands Park - Saturday 11th May 2019

British Intercounties Fell Running Championships, Todmorden, West Yorkshire - Saturday 11th May 2019

13.3kms (8.3 miles) with 600m of climb. Flower Scar has been selected as the
British Inter Counties Hill and Fell Championship Race for 2019.
This is a gem of a race with steep climbs, rough moor and fast paths, typifying
all that's best about South Pennine fell running. Starting close to Todmorden
town centre, this race will take you to the parts of Tod that other races don't
reach.

Mallorca 70.3 Half Ironman - Saturday 11th May 2019

Half Ironman Mallorca
swim 1.9km /T1 / cycle 90km /T2 / 21.1k run
Ava Lee 35.40/ 4.08/ 3.09.24/ 2.35 /1.38.23 = 5.30.09 Finish
Danny Lee 41.42/ 6.02/ 3.02.48/ 3.26 / 1.39.24 = 5.33.36
Sarah Burns 32.18/ 5.02/3.11.41/4.39/ 2.07.40 = 6.01.19
Michael Bamford 47.46/ 9.42/ 3.41.59/ 5.41/1.53.50 = 6.38.55
Jimmy Dale 34.31/ 8.02/3.45.38/ 8.40 /2.15.01 = 6.51.51
Emily Clarke 49.15/ 10.25/ 4.11.48/7.18/ 1.56.22 = 7.15.06
Rachel Le Roux 49.09/ 7.14/ 4.04.13/ 5.39/ 2.20.29 = 7.26.42

Placings - Age Cat - Gender - Overall
Ava 9th of 79 - 60th of 493 - 915th of 2877
Danny 80th of 306 - 920th of 2384 - 992nd
Sarah 29th of 79 - 157th - 1636th
Michael 247th of 306 - 2014th - 2305th
Jimmy 326th of 554 - 2110th - 2438th
Emily 58th of 67 - 400th - 2632nd
Rachel 61st of 67 - 428th - 2713th

Maverick Dorset Trail (16km middle) - Saturday 11th May 2019

Southwark Park 10km - Saturday 11th May 2019

Run Through QEOP 10km - Saturday 11th May 2019

Run Through QEOP 5km - Saturday 11th May 2019

parkrun - all venues - Saturday 11th May 2019

Crown To Crown 5km - Wednesday 8th May 2019

BHF Tower Of London 10km - Wednesday 8th May 2019

54:57
5:15 / 5:23 / 5:30 / 5:34 / 5:33 / 5:34 / 5:34 / 5:35 / 5:38 / 5:22

765 finishers.

Chase The Sun 5km, QEOP - Wednesday 8th May 2019

Chasing The Sun 10km, QEOP - Wednesday 8th May 2019

Lee Valley Aquathlon (250m swim, 3km run) - Tuesday 7th May 2019

Race report about the Lee Valley aquathlon last night because I think that they deserve some advertising.
With the marathon training behind me, I have planned to refocus a bit on my swimming as I need to be ready for a 1.5k swim as part of a triathlon team relay end of July.
So, i thought that this aquathlon would be a good start and a good baseline to actively get back to swimming.
Luckily, during my work trip to Indonesia , I managed to use the hotel pool regularly so I was not feeling too stressed despite the jetlag.
There is a train from Stratford that takes us not to far from the Lee Valley White Water so it wasn't too much of a hassle to travel there.
Once there, everything went really smoothly with registration, changing room, a friend lent me his wetsuit so I was covered but you can rent one for only £5.
I was super happy to see that another friend from the Ilford AC running club: Seb had decided to join as well as there were no ELR takers on that one :-)
We got our briefing at 19:20 , then at 19:30, the first long distance went (pink hat), followed by the second long distance wave (blue hat) one min later and my short distance one (250m swim and 3krun: yellow hat) started at 19:33.
Despite the water being at 13 degrees, i wasn't feeling cold and quite comfortable in the water , i know my technique is good, what I miss is muscles in my arms (yes, Karen i know what to do!) ... I realised around half way that there were not a lot of yellow hats in front of me and I was undertaking already some blue and pink hats...That gave me confidence to continue to push and when I got out of the water, I was told, i was 3rd women out which seemed amazing !
I don't know if it was that or the hyperventilation of the swimming (probably more likely) but after being able to remove my wetsuit quickly, my head was now starting to spin really hard and I was incapable of thinking straight... I tried to put my ELR vest on top of my triathlon suit but with the water, it rolled and i was suddenly incapable of straightening it, tearing my number in the process... Then I suddenly realised I hadn't stopped my watch and starting loosing time switching to the run instead of putting my socks and shoes... In a nutshell, the transition was a total disaster...
Then, i was feeling a bit better and started running , my legs felt ok but my breathing was a real problem and I couldn't really increase my pace which led to having 2 more women of my group overtaking me...
I finished as exhausted as at the end of the marathon but quite chuffed to see that I was only 5th women and 12th overall (and the only one in my age group) ...
I learnt plenty lessons on that race and despite all really enjoyed it... It's quite ideal for beginners if you want to try , the next one is on the 4th of June but it's an ELVIS night so no go, I'll go back on the 2nd of July ! www.gowhitewater.co.uk/activities…lon-7-may-2019-final.

Revenge Of The Sixth, Brightlingsea - Monday 6th May 2019

Maud reports: Hare & Tortoise Revenge of the Sixth Ultra
I'd been feeling a bit out-of-sorts running-wise since Manchester, so I decided to enter an ultra to pick myself up. This was a small, relaxed event consisting of a 6.55 mile lap, which you could run once, twice, four times or five times for the 10K, HM, Marathon or Ultra distances.
For the most part, a very attractive route, starting from the Essex village of Brightlingsea. The first section was along the sea wall (sweeping views, cute lambs, but windy), then turning along the Colne Estuary, winding back inland through some lovely bluebell woods, then running adjacent to the sea wall, waving to runners coming the other way on the upper level. Not a quick course, mostly trail, with a one hill on each lap and a few quite rutty bits. I enjoyed seeing the tide coming in over the course of the day.
I ran the first three laps with the only other woman in the ultra, Jess, and the other two by myself. Overtaking a few people and lapping the marathon runner (we had different coloured bibs). At no point did I lose the will to live or decide I was never going to go running ever again, which is quite unusual for me. For the first time ever (I think) I ran a sub-9 mile in a ultra - two of them, miles 32 & 33 out of 33. My lap splits made me purr. Maybe I was a bit easy on myself for the first half of the race, but it was so good to finish in a blaze of glory rather that coming-back-from-the-dead malarkey I did in Manchester.
2nd out of 5 in the ultra, and first woman (the other woman was 14 years younger than me). No trophy, but £20 off my next race with them.

Herne Hill Harriers Stan Allen Mile - Monday 6th May 2019

Milton Keynes Weekend Marathon - Monday 6th May 2019

Milton Keynes Weekend Half Marathon - Monday 6th May 2019

Mid Sussex Burgess Hill 10km - Monday 6th May 2019

Mid Sussex Marathon 2019
1st Patrick Brown 2.37.18
106th Fiona Day 4.11.54
233 finishers.

Regeneron Greater Limerick Run Half Marathon - Sunday 5th May 2019

Gun time 1.14.17 7th, chip time 1.14.15 15th.

Three Forts Challenge - Sunday 5th May 2019

Devil's Dyke - Chanctonbury Ring - Cissbury Ring 27.2 Miles MARATHON :
Known as 'The Tough One', with 27 miles of mixed terrain and climbs of 3450 feet.


Zoila reports: (Apologies it's a tad lengthy)
Race report. The Tough One. 27.2 miles 3000+ feet of climbing.
After not getting a ballot place for the 2019 London Marathon I thought I would look for something different to run. Even though I love running flat city marathons. I for somehow in my search for spring marathons on google stumbled across the three forts challenge, and decided I would enter.
Now with about 4 weeks to go I ran the Orion 15 in preparation for the three forts challenge, and after completing Orion I began to realise the challenge I had coming and question what on earth made me enter it. Never the less. I continued with my training. More than I had done before, with and including appropriate tapering and carb loading week which also meant cutting back my miles on the bike(which I had not done before a marathon).
It's my first weekend away on my own. My first endurance event on my own. So I was a bit anxious about going to a place I had never been to before and running a marathon, considering how injury prone I have been recently, also stressing about any mid night low blood sugars I may have post race.
The night before the race I didn't have a great nights sleep, one of the neighbours of the B&B I was staying in had been playing loud music through the night until the early hours. Seeing as I was awake I decided to test my sugars as they felt high, which they were so I gave myself a dose of insulin, as waking up with high sugars meant I would have felt really rough for the race and would have made breakfast a little trickier. When I woke up they were spot on. Wahay! One less thing to worry about for now.
I walked up to the field where the race started. I had gotten there an hour early, just to chill absorb the atmosphere and appreciate how luck I was to have such amazing running condition for the day 13 degrees, sunny and dry. I also strongly considered downgrading to the half marathon in that hour. Before I knew it, it was to late to make such a decision and it was time to set off. The race is started by a man dressed as a town crier ringing the bell. Making you feel like you were sort of in an old fashioned very British race across the country side.
The first 2 miles weren't so bad there's a slight incline to the cissbury ring, one of the three forts with a steep decent and a few ups and downs descending slowly to the Adur River. Already the views were already beautiful. After the Adur river I looked across the road that we had to cross and I saw the most horrible hill yet to come, this steep hill (which I had to walk up) took us up to devils dyke where the turn around point was, but before the turn around point there were a couple of undulating hills in comparison to this steep incline, which I managed to run up because they didn't seem so bad now...
On the way to the turn around point we ran through fields of cows and there were lots of people hiking. It started to get a bit chilly and windy up here which I didn't think about when I whacked on my vest in the morning. We did the same route back the descending the steep hill we came up was a lot harder. I think I prefer going up than going down! Back across the river back along the same way for a while, then the route took a different turn, up some more steep climbs towards the Chanctonbury ring, the highest point and mile 21. The views were spectacular from here and it was downhill for the next 4 miles until we got to the bottom of the first descent, which was steep, but at this point I had about 2 miles to go so I ran up the hill and my pace began to increase the closer.
The spectators were few and far between, but were amazing and with a mile to go I had one lady who had been wandering around watching the event tell me I was the only one smiling for the whole race. This gave me a little bit of encouragement to speed up for the last mile. Before I knew it I was in the familiar foresty start, and then into the field where the race began, and I felt myself just going for it. I felt my legs speed up like they hadn't just done 27 miles of hilly trail running, and ended up with a strong sprint finish.
I entered the three forts for fun, to enjoy some views and fresh air from the top of some hills, and wasn't expecting a fast time because of the hills, the cross country and the extra distance. So I was looking to get at least 4hr30. Instead I finished with a 4:03:50. 30th/252 and 6th Lady. Which even though not my marathon PB, I knew it wouldn't be. I am incredibly happy to have come out injury free too, and without having any glucose level complications during the run!

Mid Sussex Haywards Heath 10 mile - Sunday 5th May 2019

Mid Sussex East Grinstead 10 mile - Saturday 4th May 2019

parkrun - all venues - Saturday 4th May 2019

70 parkruns at 22 venues, 3 first finishers,
11 debuts and 7 course pbs,
2 buggy runs and a short course.
Bet that won't make the headlines.
First finishes from Sharon, Katherine & Mark.
Buggy battle between Shahib Ali & Richard Guest.

Rugby tour in Minehead, don't be fooled by the massive PB - the course was short!
I feel so sorry for the RD , everyone was complaining. People need to remember
that it's just running, and at seaside places it must be full of tourists and so
even harder to get volunteers.
A lovely sunny run along the seafront. Even with a short course I'm still delighted
that I ran 9:30 min miles.Maya

Well what a week. A 10k PB by nearly 4mins at Wednesday's Chase the Sun race and I
only went and got a 5k PB at parkrun today! My previous PB was 27.52mins set in 2015,
today I got 27.24mins!! 28 seconds off!
So now sub 27mins is in my sights!
Still feeling the effects of Wednesday's race there's no way I'd have got a PB today
without Jason pacing me today - thanks so much Jason and Marc for your support. This
has been a long time coming considering you started "mentoring" me almost 2 years ago
which was rudely interrupted by my accident and then my general lack of confidence since then.
Great to see Frank at the start and finish along with a few other ELRs.
Another good day, hopefully it won't be another 4 years before my next PB. Joanna

Parkrun tourism this morning at Malahide, just outside Dublin. Beautiful course though
the woods around the castle and a stunning, but windswept coastal run to get there.
Unfortunately my voice has gone so I just croaked at everyone we met there.Catriona

Wimbledon Trail Series - Event 1 (5 miles) - Wednesday 1st May 2019

Chase The Sun10km, Victoria Park - Wednesday 1st May 2019

Joanna Wood: Race Report: Runthrough Chase the Sun 10km Victoria Park.
Last year had been a pretty bad year running-wise for me. I'd run the Brighton Marathon in March, having cracked a rib during a fall on a club run approx 3 weeks beforehand. Although chuffed with my time and having completed the marathon afterwards I just had a total lack of confidence. I felt physically sick at the thought of races and the very limited races I entered throughout the rest of the year I hated. My times were slow, I felt awful as soon as the gun went off and it got to the point where I even avoided all the Elvis races as I felt physically sick at the thought of competing. I was even avoiding club runs and social runs with my friends.
Illness and some pretty abysmal winter training runs in preparation for 2019 Manchester Marathon just affected my mindset even further and I ended up pulling out of the race a few months beforehand - the relief I felt was overwhelming.
Getting back into swimming in 2018 was a welcome distraction and my easy excuse for not running - but it obviously didn't solve the problem.
Fast forward to 15 April 2019. I'd finished a 3 month diet and training programme, lost 3 stone, down 2 dress sizes, I'm on point with my new asthma medication and felt fitter and stronger than I'd done in years - the haircut obviously contributed to losing a few pounds!!!
I'd entered The Hackney Half Marathon and my training had been going really well so it was an impromptu decision to sign up for tonight's race. With about a weeks notice I decided it was time to put myself to the test and see what results I could get for a 10km so signed up.
I've felt nervous all day, got to the venue about 90mins early and felt those familiar butterflies in my tummy in the build up to the start. But a little voice kept telling me I'd done well so far so just see what I could do. My downfall has always been to expect to get better and better with each race I'd done. This hadn't played out at all. In fact apart from my marathon times my 5k, 10k and 1/2 marathon PBs were all set PRIOR to my joining ELR 3 years ago. I've obviously been taking the social side of the club more seriously than the running side!
Tonight's race was 3 laps. I hate laps. But tonight I loved them as I was able to pace myself well. The weather was perfect, the course perfect and I was feeling pretty good.
As usual I started off too fast (for me anyway) at a 9min mile pace. But it felt really good and so rather than slow down after the first mile I decided to see how long I could maintain it. Turns out I could maintain it for 6 miles! My fastest mile was 9.03 mins and my slowest 9.11 mins!
I felt quite emotional halfway round knowing I was on tack for a PB if I just stayed focused. I also felt emotional as it's the first race in a very long time that I had no one there to support me. Spencer Evans was also doing the 10k, he waved on his way home as I was starting my last lap so he doesn't count! But my mum was my first phone call to tell her my result - mums are great!
Anyway for the last mile I felt sick but not through nerves through effort. And it was worth it.
The Runthrough team are simply fantastic. I've done only a handful of their races over the last 4 years but each time they remember me and it was great to have one of the organisers come over straight after I'd finished with a huge grin saying "Hi" and how great it was that I'd come back to run with them again. I really can't recommend their races enough!
Oh my time? Yep that's probably the most important bit of this report. Well, my 10km PB was set in 2015 with a time of 59.58mins.
Tonight I managed 56.09mins and I am chuffed! Boy it feels good to be back.

Go Tri Duathlon, Velopark QEOP - Tuesday 30th April 2019

2 mile 14.04, 10 mile cycle 30.45, 2 mile 12.39

Made my duathlon debut at the Velopark yesterday (2 mile run / 10 mile bike / 2 mile run).
Finished 9th out of about 50 in 57:29 which isn't bad considering a) it was my first one
b) everyone who finished ahead of me looked younger than me and c) I probably had the
crappiest bike in the whole race. Enjoyed it, though not sure I can entirely get on board
with an event which partly judges you on how quickly you can change shoes and put on /
take off a helmet. Getting dressed isn't a sport!
Scott McMillan:

34th Haspa Marathon Hamburg - Sunday 28th April 2019

Pictures available in Photo Gallery

10,096 Finishers.

Michael Wilson report: The 2019 Hamburg Marathon Weekend Experience.
Here I am staying on the Reeperbahn once again, a 15 minute walk from the start next to the Hamburg Exhibition Hall and Congress Centre. On the way to the Expo on Saturday afternoon I pass the St Pauli football stadium (Bundesliga 2 Division) and I hear the roar of the crowd as their team score a goal. I immediately think of Leyton Orient and wish I could be at Brisbane Road for their promotion game. I return to my hotel late afternoon and check the score. It is 0-0 and they have secured promotion to League 2. I spend much of the evening watching videos on you tube and twitter feed, of the crowd and team celebrating on the pitch. I wake up Sunday morning and look out of the window and it is raining. I eat breakfast and have already decided to use the bag drop, as it is too cold to walk to the start in just my vest and shorts like I did last year. I finally locate the bag drop in one of the vast halls, but the girl will not take my bag and is pointing away. After a last minute panic I find out the reason why - I am at the female drop. (The F next to the numbers on the baggage system should have given it away I suppose)! I locate the men's one, apply last minute Vaseline and Deep Heat and dash for the start line. When I reach my Zone it is apparent I am not dressed correctly for the conditions. I am almost the only person who is wearing a vest. Most are wearing a tee shirt and some with long sleeves too. 'Not to worry' I think to myself, I am bound to warm up when the race starts. The first few Kilometres and I am running at a steady pace. My breathing is fine, there is a group all around me so I go with the flow. I am getting wet and feel cold, but that is fine - I hate running long distances feeling hot! The course goes back down to the Harbour (the gateway to the world), the St Pauli Landing Stage, and along the AuBenalster lake and other sites. I get to half way but not once have I looked at my watch - I want to enjoy this and not worry about my time. By now my fingers are numb, I am soaked to the skin and someone offers me a gel. I am having difficult opening the thing! In the end I take a massive bite and a large amount of gel squirts out and lands down the front of my shorts. All this effort has left me breathless and gasping in cold air (like at the Royston Cross Country) and I am starting to panic a little. The mind games start and I wonder if I am developing hyperthermia, as I am now cold all over! Will I get dizzy and fail to finish after a little more than 13 miles? I regain my composure once I have sucked out what was left of the gel and get back into my stride. Soon the runners around me have thinned out somewhat and I am tiring. I take some banana from the crowd to boost my energy. I try not to look at the KM signs and keep my head down in concentration, ignoring any distractions around me. The last 10Km my legs are tiring and I have slowed considerably, however I fight any small incline and speed up on any slight down hill. The last 5km were a joy because I knew I would make finish without stopping! The only time I looked at my time was at the end and was delighted to have achieved my target of sub 3.45! There are hundreds of people in the exhibition halls at the end - eating the free fruit, the hot soup, the small pieces of cake and drinking beer! I manage to locate my bag, the medal engraving stand and the place where you return the running chip; but cannot find the post race massage area. After half an hour of people pointing me in different directions or failing to understand me, I give up and walk back to the hotel. In the evening I look at my splits on the website and could not believe that I ran the first half in 1.43.19 which was far too fast for my fitness level. The second half speaks for itself! It is such a relief to finish and get my target time. I only do limited training at the moment and need to get closer to the 3.33 I ran only 18 months ago. When I retire next year I hope to put in more quality Training. It is difficult combining this with my job as I am exhausted all the time (and always suffer from aches and pains Shahib Ali - ha ha!). At the moment I am on target for a GFA at the London Marathon in a couple of years, if I can keep on going! I have had a wonderful weekend, seen some of the sites, eaten German Sausage (Bratwurst) and spent this morning (Monday), down at the Port of Hamburg which is a five minute walk down the road. As you can see I have had some time to waste this afternoon, but now I am off to the station to catch my train back to the airport.

SuperSports 10 mile International Run Series Thailand - Sunday 28th April 2019

First race done in over a year. 10 mile distance in Hatyai , Thailand. Part of a
5 race series , this being #2/5. Started 04:30 in the morning and temp in the
high 20's , felt like running through treacle , still managed to finish fairly
high up the field. Finished in 1:33:42 , so will do Bangkok next on 18th May
and see if I can improve and finish on the podium.

Virgin Money London Marathon - Sunday 28th April 2019

Pictures available in Photo Gallery

Jose Rodriquez report: What an amazing day we had at the 39th London Marathon. My partner was running too so this one was a very special one. We met with few runners from the club and after taking few pictures we all took separate ways to our respective start zones. I had a bit of warm up, toilet and ready to start.
I felt really strong and even like that I manage to control myself and stick to my target of 4min/km for 2:50 h. ( Hopefully a bit under) I saw Grant and other few ELR at Isle of dogs, my son and a few friends and the ELR crew at mile 20. The atmosphere was the best!
I felt great and after the first half I started to slightly faster to try to do negative splits. It all worked out until km 35 when I started suffering with cramps in my legs( regret reply forgetting to take the salt capsules. I lost some beautiful minutes stretching and trying to be able to run again...and finally I did it...I manage to run, slower but run...stopped briefly another couple of times and I was in complete agony for the las 2 km. I remember screaming the last 380 yards...a bit embarrassing but I finished, in pain...but with over 6 Min PB!!.
Hopefully I learned few things that I can correct for Chicago in October..

Roisin Archer:- A shiny new marathon PB deserves a nice glass of bubbly I reckon.
What an incredible day. It was hard towards the finish but so happy to get 3:17. Thank
you to my amazing cheerleaders Aaron J Browne Bob Archer Rowan Baker (and those supporting from afar).


Shahib ali reports:- Brief race report as Samia has only gone and written a 10,000 word essay. First of all, thank you ELR for giving me another chance to run the VLM, it means a lot. Also full appreciation to the volunteers, giving up so much of your time - all kudos to you. Having done Manchester 2018 in 3.22.46 - exceeding all expectations - I always asked myself whether I can reach/surpass such heights again (relative to me). I did Berlin and NYC in 3.46.44 and 3.37.58, respectively, and whilst knowing full well the context to those races, I wasn't sure whether I could get near the Manchester time for London 2019. Barring the paucity of speed work and threshold runs during the week due to work, the long runs were of a very good quality, did decent quality long runs and that was the problem: I should really be challenging my PB but I had that dissenting voice in my head, creating more and more pressure. I have always found the mental side of marathon running a challenge and this was another one. The Tuesday before the marathon, I developed a viral illness, which still affected me in the marathon. I had no choice but to scale back, was aided by the weather, and perhaps as a result of running within myself enjoyed my best ever marathon in terms of feeling comfortable for large swathes of the marathon. I really engaged the crowd and had lots of fun. The mental game starts again...Thank you to my de facto mental coach Carlton D'Souza as well as Jonathan Wooldridge, Peter Hatley, John Paul Healy and Grant Conway. Well done Samia Choudhury.

Stephen Taylor: I thought i'd bore you all with a marathon report on why marathons are stupid to quote the man who did one and myself, as he is right! I did my second marathon yesterday and did have high hopes of running well as training had gone better than for Manchester last year. I knew i had to lose weight and shed a stone mainly in the last 3 weeks to bring me down to 13.8. Time has always been my motivating factor in doing running and weight loss, but my daughter said to me a couple of days ago if you had to choose between going for a time and not finishing or finishing and raising money for the charity i was doing, what would you choose, being someone who always likes his cake and more I lied and told her finishing. Anyhow on the day i felt nauseous and could only eat half my porridge(major health warning right there) before gagging a few times but put it down to nerves, I didn't feel any. I travelled up with Orion Harriers on their bus courtesy of being a 2nd claim member and having done a lot of my training with them for the marathon. I started with a guy from Orion and so ditched my plan to run with or near the 3.30 pacer. We went up the first incline after about 1.5 miles and i could feel my left glute and hamstring twinging but put it down to warming up. At around 7 or 8 miles i think, my friend needed a loo break and offered me the chance of waiting or he would catch me up. Unfortunately he did but around 19 or so and went flying past to a magnificent time. I clung on to reach the ELR water station expecting this wall of red shining in the distance only to have to take a second look to recognise Nick and Jimmy and a blur of wonderful support and volunteers, boy did i need one of them to take my tag and number and do the last 10k for me. After that my time and everything else slowed up to non existent. My wife and daughter appeared around 21 miles not as agreed at 12 when I was looking like Mo, where I proceeded to stop again and tell them I would be walking the last 5 as i was beyond spent so i would be later at the meet and greet at which point i then jogged on. My time was 4 minutes 12 seconds slower than Manchester I was relieved to finish such an iconic marathon and get that glorious medal and tick a childhood dream of mine of the list! When i stumbled to the meet and greet to meet the others I phoned them up to enquire where they were to be told have you finished yet! followed by we are getting something to eat, that's my girl, then.. you told us you were going to walk the rest ☹️ I ended up getting the tube home alone. Will i do another marathon very unlikely but never say never i have unfinished business. Hats off to all the volunteers and anyone who attempts a marathon all heroes!

Katie Whitton: My First Race Report- It's really long but marathons are long.
I was so pleased to get a place through the club but worried I may not make it to the start line after achilles problems last year..
Training started slowly but in Feb I got a parkrun PB so l felt I was back from the injury. This was my 3rd marathon but the first with ELR, I enjoyed training for this one the most. I have done most of my long runs with ELR and got to know some brilliant people whilst exploring the streets of London.
Of course when training for a marathon it is impossible to predict what life throws at you. At the beginning of the year my Grandad became ill so I decided to raise money for the hospital that were taking care of him. This meant travelling to Harlow hospital after many long runs. He was a keen runner in his youth running cross country for county. When I did my first marathon I was living with him so he understood what was involved.
I had some (not so) secret ambitions to try and run under 4 hours despite my current PB being 4 hours 25 mins (before ELR). This seemed like a good idea because I had knocked over 10 mins off my 5km time and around 15 off my half marathon time since joining the club. I used the Gade Valley 17 and 20 to test the pace. I loved these runs and would recommend to anyone training for a marathon, the scenery is beautiful. I ran the 20 in 3 hours 6 and this gave me confidence to go for just under 4 hours in London I knew if I didn't make it I would probably be able to still get a PB. On the Gade Valley 20 I felt so positive the whole way round despite the 1000ft elevation! When I got home from this race I received the news that my Grandad has sadly died. This marathon was going to be for him.
The night before I just COULD NOT sleep. I became more stressed as the hours went by finally falling asleep just before 4am. A couple of hours was better than nothing. When I ran Brighton in 2016 I didn't sleep at all but managed to knock 5 mins off my London 2014 time so told myself it's fine.
I met the ELR gang. Everyone was smiling! After group photos we had plenty of time so we had a relaxed couple of hours. The faster greens went to their pens, Helen and I were in good spirits chatting to other runners and going to the toilet many times. We watched the Elite men start on the screen. I chucked my old jumper as soon as I got in the pen which was foolish as I then had a 15 min wait. Brrr cold.
My plan was to stick as close to 9 min miles. At the start this felt soooo slow which was a bit of a shock to me even though I was told it would, 9 min miles in a marathon is new to me. I kept making myself slow right down.
When the different colour pens joined there were so many people! I started weaving even through and getting stuck behind groups of people running in a line. I wanted to keep my pace. I didn't remember finding this frustrating in 2014 but my approach back then was to enjoy it with no time in mind. The road soon became wider and I coud relax again!
I enjoyed A LOT of spectators. Firstly I saw Tina with a big yellow ELR sign, I shouted 'ELR'. Then I spotted my friend Laura B at mile 4, she looked really excited. I saw Alex's wife Louise and daughter Lucy who gave me a big cheer! I saw my friend Ollie at mile 8. Last year he ran it and I was cheering him on from the ELR water station. My boyfriend Liam was at mile 8.5 and 11. Ollie popped up again at 11. The miles were flying by. My friends Laura M and Calum were on Tower Bridge. Laura has been at all of my marathons and most of my halfs (as has Liam and Rachel) and always cries when she sees me. I really enjoyed running over the Bridge and felt a bit emotional. She had bought a 3 year olds birthday balloon 🤣 as this was my 3rd marathon so she was easy to spot. I gave her my empty bottle that had had my hydration drink in it. Now I would drink plain water. I realised I'd forgotten to take my mile 12 block at mile 13 because I was so distracted by the crowds! I loved the signs 'Pain is just bread in French' was my favourite! Just after Tower bridge I passed the speedy runners coming back on the other side. I saw Mark Boulton and shouted 'ELR'. I saw another school friend Bronte and her Mum Karen at mile 14. I blew kisses! I felt very positive and enjoyed it up until mile 15 when the gels and water started to feel a bit gross and I started to gag (despite nothing new on race day, today it didn't feel right). I told myself to stay positive but this was hard to do on such little sleep! I felt cold. I saw another ELR runner he said he was struggleing too. Surely this will pass, I still have a long way to go. I saw Liam again at mile 17 as well as Georgie and Nick (a lovely surprise). At this point in London 2014 I was so happy, and bounced past mudchut, this time grimaced and gave liam a thumbs down. Liam said you are still on for exactly 4 hours but I knew I was likely to have added a bit of extra distance with overtaking. 3 miles seemed like a long way until the ELR water station! I felt myself slowing but thought I can still potentially get my goal, push on. The crowd started shouting 'CHRIS EVANS'! Over and over. My moody brain thought 'go away chris evans'. Mile 20, It was great to see you all, I was finding it so tough at this point. First I saw Grant, Jonathan, Maya and a few others, I don't think I managed a smile but your cheers spurred me on and apparently I looked happy when passing the ELR water station. So many friendly faces really cheering me on. I wanted to stop and be on the water station. They know what your going through I thought! 6 miles to go. This is now a bit of a blurr but I also gave the thumbs down to Laura B and my sister (cheery!). My legs were fine but the weird feeling of the gels and water felt so horrid and I started feeling a bit sick. My pouch with gels in was annoying me, it was bashing my back (this wasn't an issue in training). My legs were tired but just seemed to keep going.
I saw my friends Jess and Katherine somewhere towards the end but it's all a bit blurry. I saw some more ELRs at this point! Mum had brought Grandma down in a wheelchair but they didn't manage to spot me. Liam saw me on embankment but I didn't spot them as did Laura and Calum now joined by Sam and Rachel.
The end was all a bit grim. Even though I have done it before the twists and turns seem to go on forever. Finally I finished. I grabbed the man with the medals to steady myself and when he asked if I was okay to walk on my own I tried and wobbled around like a drunk person. They put me in a wheelchair. They asked me if I felt ready to walk, I felt dizzy and couldn't manage it. I phoned my sister who later told me I was speaking in a very slow Norfolk accent (I am not from Norfolk). The floor of the st john ambulance tent was uneven and the man accidentally drove me into the tent pole breaking the foot rest off the wheelchair (oops). I was now struggling to talk slurring my words, feeling sick, hot and cold, dizzy and confused but the st johns ambulance people were amazing and the fed and watered me and calmed me down. When I managed to talk the most important thing to me at the time was 'will I still get a t-shirt?'. I started to feel stronger. Liam arrived and I was feeling much better but had completely seized up. I hadn't stretched . We met a few of the others who later told me they were a bit shocked by my blue lips and headed back to The Red Lion in Leytonstone for a roast dinner. The plan was to go to the ship and shovel first but I spent too much time with St Johns. Liam congratulated me on my time and I asked what it was. 4 hours 5! A 20 min pb. I felt so pleased. As soon as a left the medical tent I said I could maybe get sub 4 on a less busy marathon, what about Edinburgh. Not for a while. I think this was the toughest marathon out of my 3 but maybe that's because it's fresh in my mind. I said before that this marathon might be a bit easier if I am on my feet for less time I can tell you I was wrong.
I got back the Red Lion where the rest of my friends and family were! I'd done it.
A wise man Stuart Barton once told me 'Marathons are stupid' I think he is probably right.
Thank you to ELR for the place and for training with me and making me 20mins faster! Best club in the world!

Virgin Money London Marathon - Sunday 28th April 2019

MARK BOULTON - More of a extract from my memoirs than a race report.

My journey to the 2019 Virgin Money London Marathon began back on a November afternoon in a New York restaurant.
I had planned to run the New York Marathon but around the time of the last ELVIS race in September, I began to get some niggles in my right ankle and the pain got worse throughout October until I was diagnosed with tibialis posterior tendonitis.

Over the last few years, I had become more distant from the club I joined in 2010. Around 2 years ago I decided to get a coach after my results had plateaued and I was following his training plan religiously. The sessions were structured around a more traditional running week (Sunday = Long Run, Tuesday = Track, Thursday = Tempo etc) which brought me the results I wanted; PB's over 1 mile, 5k, 10k, Half-Marathon and Marathon in 2018 but the plan put me out of sync with the club activities. I found myself getting more isolated from the club, I would turn up at ELVIS races, not really know many people, race, go home, repeat.

Getting injured in October hit me hard, I wanted to pack running in. I felt like my body was letting me down, I began to question why I was bothering. Finishing session after session, day after day, week after week on my own, moaning to my wife about how tired I was constantly, icing my ankle every night, doing rehab exercises every morning, for what? To be able to go and do another session the next day on my own? And now I was injured. I gave swimming a go, and was cycling to work. I know Pat Brown was doing some swimming, if it's good enough for Pat it's good enough for me. After 3-4 weeks I was even managing to swim for a mile (lot's of rest breaks - but still, it's something I'm really proud of)

So that was it, I was going to swim a few times a week, cycle to work. Maybe do parkrun on a Saturday. Get my fix that way. I'm 35 now, I just want to be fit and healthy. I love running, but my body let me down. It's not you, it's me.

I put all my marathon medals in a box and put it in the loft.

We still went to New York for a lovely long weekend, I just decided to stay well out of the way on Marathon Sunday. Then on Saturday, we were in a lovely New York restaurant having a spot of lunch and I got a message. Without wishing to embarrass anyone or breaking any confidence it was the vice-chair of our running club. He was checking if I was OK as he couldn't find my name on the start list. I cant express how much that meant to me. It was then i had a moment of clarity. I am a member of a running club that I do not go to. All the fellowship and camaraderie I wanted and didn't know I needed was there. I needed to make some changes.

Back in London, the following weekend I was running around to my mum's house and I bumped into Maya. I think I told Maya how disillusioned I was with my running, she made a comment how I needed to relax and be a bit more like her and she needed to be a bit more like me, but that I should come back to the club. That gave me the confidence I needed to come back to the club on a Wednesday night. From then I made a decision to re-connect with the club that I love. It is not an exaggeration to say that joining the club in 2010 changed my life, allot of the amazing things I have done and experienced can be traced back to joining the club and the people I have met along the way. I am a runner, my wife met me as a runner, I ran on my wedding day, I ran most days on honeymoon. I am an East London Runner.

I ran 2:44:26 yesterday. The 1st message I got when I turned on my phone; from the chair man of this running club.

Ashley Faria: First and only marathon report ever!
Marathon running is a completely different ball game to anything else I have ever done. I can run 5km in under 20 minutes and 200m in 34 seconds and even a half marathon in 1:37 but this is different! I started my training with this in mind.
I used Paula Radcliffe's plan and it fitted perfectly. I also asked everyone I knew for advice. This helped as training went really well. The only doubt was what time I should aim for or forget that and finish with a smile on my face! Unfortunately, I need the time for the smile!
On marathon morning, I chose to enjoy the experience and aim for the smile. The race was amazing. I started well and not too fast as I normally do. I just enjoyed it-the running and the people. I don't actually enjoy running but that's another story!
I loved high fiving the children-the reason I do my day job as a deputy head! I loved smiling at people and saying thank you for the encouragement. I loved the roar. I loved the sights! Tower Bridge was a memory that I will hold forever.
At mile 19, I saw my family which really helped as I knew I was getting tired. I knew ELR were at mile 20 so it spurred me on. When I got there, everyone was amazing-it gave me a boost to 22. If only the marathon finished then. The last bit was tough with cramp-always my achilles so the fear kicked in. I wanted to enjoy it so slowed and stretched and walked. I even talked to the crowds. I saw sub 3:50 slip away, I saw 4:00 slip away but I wanted to finish hopefully with a smile, not in pain and certainly not on a stretcher! Yvonne really helped by making me run a bit and so in the last mile I did which got me agonisingly close to sub-4 hours but for 14 seconds.
Strangely for me, I'm really happy about everything to do with it including all the training and prep and I wouldn't change a thing (apart from my shorts which started to fall down due to the gels.).
It will probably be my last marathon due to some personal issues not just because of the pain as well but I am glad I did it-it was fun and I did my best. That's all that matters.
I finished with a smile on my face although the photo shows otherwise.

Janet Bywater:- December - Average weekly mileage of 8 miles
Early January -average weekly mileage 25 miles- oh bugger, I've got ITB, I wonder why?
Late January onwards a more sensible approach to training, but a constant stream of issues. My knees, my back, my hips, a heavy cold, I think I've got shin splints, I haven't got shin splints, oh my hips..... at which stage Mr Steve Bywater confirms that I definitely have got hypochondria!( How very dare he!) I will leave it to him to confirm the last ailment that I complained of, as he will never let me forget it, even though I swear it is a genuine condition!
So to race day. It was truly amazing, the support and love shown all day from the group meet in the morning, the FB messages, the crowds calling out my name. A special mention here to the drag queen singing my name from the balcony of a pub in Bermondsey, I think it was. To seeing lots of people I know and love in the crowds. The ELR water station, which having witnessed it as a volunteer in the past, the is what convinced to run the VLM, it was the absolute highlight. I felt the love.
Then the wheels started coming off and my planned sub 4 started slipping away. The cramp set in from mile 24. Oh why did I stop to stretch, as then it really attacked?
So it was a stop, stagger, shuffle on repeat for the last 2 miles, with random runners grabbing my hand and dragging me along to the finish line and the crowd encouraging me all the way.
I crossed the line, got my medal. I didnt dare sit down, as I knew I would never stand up ever again. All the while thinking, 'That was bloody awesome, I've got to do it again!'

Helen McGuinness: Race report: It was an early start and it was really nice to be able to travel in with ELR. As we got closer I became more excited and a lot more nervous and worried about the day especially being ill with bronchitis in the last month and had I done enough?
Everybody thought it was amusing that I'd brought a little breakfast picnic. Shaun's advice to have breakfast when I usually have it. Now off to the pens.
I had a 20minute wait to the off and I had a very nice chat with a Canadian lady.
It wasn't as bad as I expected running with all the people and I took my time keeping in mind what mum had texted me before the start 'Remember u're there for this amazing experience not 2 b 1 of the elites! U kno you can run that far, u've done it b4! Go girl! Doesn't matter if u're a hare or snail , you're still a star! Have fun! XXXX'
I was very surprised to see Marc and Stuart when we merged but the so and so's ran off and left me. Cutty Sark arrived a lot quicker than expected. And the crowds were fantastic.
After this point settle in to my rhythm and just tried to take it all in. One American nutter thought I was off Eastenders so I played along for a bit. It must've been the hair.
Tower bridge came and went went without a hitch. The dead lands I.e. the docklands but I thought it was ok. In the back of my mind I had an over riding desire to go to the loo which was with me for the whole race but after all the horror stories I'd heard and the desire to finish the race being greater than the desire to go to the loo I decided to give it a miss.
I was a little bit distracted around mile 15 when I was looking for mum. And was really surprised to find her at Mile 18ish. Quick hug, kiss and pat on back and off I went.
Mile 20 ELR gave me a boost even more than I thought it would. All the shouting and cheering and seeing the faces of all my friends and it was a bit of a relief to know I'd got this far.
At this point I remembered Shaun had said just think of it as one more loop of the forest and the bonus being it's not as hilly. I spied Marc in the distance, caught him, had a little chat realised I'd passed Stuart ages ago and Marc urged me to go on. At this point let me thank Sandra, Marc, Stuart and Jason who were a big help and a constant source of encouragement it the latter stages of training in those big runs and the constant batonage on messenger!!
Now for the final hurdle. Steady pace, mindfulness to focus on running and not trying to do a time. I didn't bother with all that sprinting nonsense I just wanted to finish. I could see 4.45 runners in the distance but it didn't really incentivise me to catch them I just wanted to finish.
Sandra said when you get to Big Ben and turn into the Mall that's the best bit. Then it was 800m/ twice round the track, once round the track and I'm home.

Virgin Money London Marathon - Sunday 28th April 2019

Stuart Barton reports: My view of marathons is well known, after today this has not changed, however the people who run these things are amazing. 26.2 miles of pounding the pavement around London with the best crowds anywhere. Then at mile 20 the best part of the day. Maya GoodwinJo BullJan WebbSonia CheadleJoanna Wood just before the water station, I did not want to leave. Then the best running club in the world in the water station, so many friendly faces. The VLM is a great day but made so special by the volunteers. ELR you are by far the only thing that kept me going.
P.S what parkrun shall I do this weekend

Samia reports: *WARNING- really really long* #sorrynotsorry
7 months pregnant- spectating my twin, Tas and Shahib, run the greater Manchester marathon. Watching everyone and thinking 'I can do this in two years time, of course I can.'
8 months pregnant- 'actually I'm going to apply for the London marathon, baby will be 10 months by then.' But I didn't take into account that I may have a complicated labour and take longer to recover.
9 months- baby is out all relatively normal 'thank God!' And Shahib gifts me new running trainers 'wahey!'
6 weeks postpartum- 1st parkrun, I'm rather slow and can't even run the whole 5km. 'Never mind I'll build my fitness'
2 and 3 months postpartum- I run two Elvis races the whole way, 'I'm ready for the marathon mate'
4 months postpartum- London Marathon ballot results, I didn't get in. 'Ok that's fine I can try for the club ballot, don't lose hope Samia.' Shahib at this point is happy because he thinks having never run a marathon and not having done anything more than a half marathon over a year ago, I will not have enough time to prepare, and we have a very active toddler and a baby exclusively breastfed. Obviously he doesn’t realise how much will power I actually have.
5 months postpartum- slowly increasing my buggy miles. Not going to let punctured wheels stop me from my runs.
Club results are out, l didn't get in but that man, Shahib did! And Tas got in through charity. I'm upset. But ok maybe it's for the best, 'I'll do Manchester marathon the following year. I will have more time to train' I say to myself. But then Jonathan suggests a charity. So I contact them and go to sleep with little hope. Next day I check my emails as any other mum on maternity does while ignoring the crying kids. I got in via TASK Brasil. 'Yes! Shahib I got into VLM!' He is not very ecstatic at all. 'How will we BOTH train and watch kids?' He moans. 'We will manage, don't worry'
6 months postpartum- Grant helps me with a training plan. I start off a few weeks earlier than planned.
*December- training officially begins*
After doing buggy runs pretty much all the time, doing my Wednesday long runs feels bit free. The Wednesday runs haven't been that long so Tas has helped with babysitting. Due to some bank holidays Shahib is also free to be with the kids.
January- a lovely friend offers to watch the baby on Wednesdays until April so I can do my weekly runs, while we shove the older one in nursery. He’s now in nursery for longer hours. So I make sure to make the most of it!
This month I learn that I must remember to check if I have the house keys inside the house and not after shutting the door with a baby and no nappies. That run did not go as planned. I also learn that training 66% of the time with a buggy means the resident of the buggy will not always cooperate. 'Remember samia babies don't like cold wind hitting their faces' so some runs have meant I need to stop, hug baby, and run again with rain cover on to protect baby and basically not be disrupted again.
February- increase in mileage this month. I have to muster mental strength to push me through distances I have never run before. Preparation before long runs means making sure baby's bag is ready with nappies, breakfast pouches and snack pouches. Waking up an hour before the three boys to have breakfast then wake all three of them and get them ready although the older one (Shahib) is capable of doing things himself, even though he is the slowest! By 8am we're all out the house, Shahib drops me and baby to my friend's house and then toddler to nursery. I let my friend know how many hours I'll be out for then sneak out so this clingy child doesn't stick to me like glue. Come back exhausted only to have to breastfeed my ‘deprived’ baby. Good thing I sewed my running gear to be breastfeeding accessible. I then come home quickly shower, cook for the in laws if they're home, eat and pick up toddler and try to keep him entertained.
But then night before my longest planned run, friend calls and says she's unwell and cannot watch baby, I tell her 'don’t worry, rest up' as I know she has done so much already. But at home I’m like 'Eurgh Shahib what do I do' as I blink away tears. He says 'ok why don’t you run on Friday instead as I don't have work in the morning, but try be home before Friday prayers.' Ok. I can do this. I set off but by half way I'm shattered. 'It's ok samia, now it's just running home' but I run out of gels and I still have 4 miles to go. I call Shahib 'I'm shattered, and I don’t have anymore gels' and like a very reassuring husband he says 'look, you've done enough to get you through the marathon. Be sensible and get the train home'. I come home not feeling too bad, and let my coach know what happened. Of Course my coach being Grant the Great also reassures me that I've done enough to get myself round the course. 'Ok so I'll be fine! Relax'
March- my parents and Shahib's parents now know I'll be running the marathon. To say they are not pleased is an understatement. 'How can you run, you have kids to look after,' 'focus your energy on your kids and family' and 'girls from our background don't run, we aren't English' . This only pushes me to continue my buggy runs throughout the week, even when I do not want to, through all sorts of weather. That includes interval training and some Hill sessions (or whatever I can do with the buggy). And I now need to prepare for my two half marathons. Big Half first and I manage to get myself a PB by 10 minutes. So maybe I can go slightly easy on the second half. London Landmarks HM and I only just get another PB by 5 minutes!
April- 'samia it's the month of the marathon. You've never run a marathon, are you prepared?' I ask myself. 'Mergh I'll be fine, if I cry I cry.' But so far thanks to coach Grant's advice I've kept injury free. Now need to put my foot down and fundraise. Thankfully Shahib joined me last month to fundraise together which has helped.
Expo- I still don't feel too nervous as I pick my race number. But we can't find an official marathon jacket. I'm not too bothered but Shahib and Tas seen as if they will cry. Then a gentleman helps Shahib find the last one. Yippee! Come home and tag mine and shahib's shoes and pin our race numbers because he is incapable of doing it himself. Then it's back to the grind of taking care of the boys and trying to rest and fuel for tomorrow. Everything is ready for tomorrow and I'm going to sleep knowing I have reached my charity target.
Marathon Day- I wake up feeling rested. Get ready and kiss my sleepy kids goodbye as I leave them with my mum and sister. But of course Shahib is last to get ready. The three of us get to Stratford station and meet the ELR team. Once we get to Greenwich who gets nervous? Shahib! So I reassure him and hug before we split. Once we get to the start Tas and I relax. But as we approach the start line we hug each other and Tas gets a little nervous. I on the other hand don't know what to expect so feel quite relaxed.
First 10k I go slow and steady, feel good. As I approach Tower Bridge I get so happy knowing I've reached halfway way feeling good. But by 25km I can feel my lower back and hips started to hurt. I tell myself that labour pains is far worse and continue on. I see my cousins and aunts by 26km and get a boost, then see my two nieces. And then to my surprise my friends. By 20miles I'm sore but who do I see cheering me? ELR!!! High five Jonathan and continue on. Highway see my friends again and feel great. But I'm sore. So I remember what Grant said and continue to run as I'll get to the finish quicker! By Blackfriars everyone is cheering me and I feel like a celebrity. And then after Embankment I see Shahib with his medal and my toddler, and I feel so happy. Followed by my whole family and my baby! I blow them a kiss and continue on. By 40km I think 'what is the point of walking, you're so close'. So I run on. Turn right and I can see the finish! I cross the line at 06:10:06 and raise my hands and praise the Lord! I have done it! I have completed my first marathon and ran the whole way. What a journey! I feel phenomenal!
To some I've only completed a marathon 'blimey Samia, you haven't won a Nobel prize! But to me I've achieved so much! I'm not an athlete (my time is evidence enough) where I can just bounce back to running after having a child. But I've broken so many barriers. I CAN run distances I've never done before within a year of giving birth! I CAN run in a headscarf/hijab and abaya while pushing a buggy! I CAN still be a mum and run for my mental wellbeing. I CAN have a supporting husband and family that encourage me to face challenges. I CAN challenge myself and achieve as long as I have self belief!

Marc Akers:-London marathon race report
The Plan was to enjoy this marathon after going for a time at Manchester
Stuart & me had decided to run together for as long as possible and if the other dropped off to run our on race.
main thing was to get Stuart a Pb & if possible under 5 hrs
We were together until about mile 13 & then got split up
I looked around and couldn't see Stuart so I kept going at the same pace hoping to get under 4:45.
My legs started to tire at 18 miles but I kept going knowing the ELR water station wasn't far away
At 20 miles I see jo & Sonia first & then jan & maya .
Then I see everyone at the water station lots of hugs & squirting of water thanks Michael
You all gave me a massive boost thank you so much
I got to 2 miles left & see my friends so went over & gave them hugs & was told my sister & daughter were at 600m to go
I stayed on the righthand side knowing I'd see them soon
I searched the crowds & then heard them shouting they all got sweaty hugs & my sister started to cry so I left before I started.
I checked my watch & I had 16 minutes to stay under 5hrs
I finished in 4:49:40 so I was pleased.

Isabella Allen: London Marathon Race Report, here it goes: I would firstly like to thank ELR for their support along the way, coming to the improvers club runs and moving up to the 10k club runs increased my confidence in the lead up to the event and you are all so supportive! So in October last year I could barely run 5k without dying, to then say I completed the London Marathon yesterday has made me feel so over the moon. My plan was to stick to 11 min miles as I wanted sub 5 hours, I ran with my friend as we were in the same start zone. If I hadn't ran with her I think I would've stopped half way but she kept me going until mile 20. Unfortunately my legs seized up at this point and I knew sub 5 was out the window, but I realised not to stress too much on time, after all it was my first ever marathon and I have come a long way. During the last six miles I just learned to take in the atmosphere and enjoy every last mile of it and everyone cheering me on made it even better. I did see a few ELRs looking super strong in their red vests, Stuart Stupot Barton and Marc Akers to name a few! When I came to Buckingham palace I could see my family in the grandstands and that made me feel so proud as my dad was part of ELR in the 1980's. I finished in 5:36, not the time I wanted but I'm just happy to get round bearing in mind I queued for the loo at mile 15 for 15 mins! However, what I took from this experience is that if it all doesn't go to plan try not to worry and just enjoy the atmosphere!! I can now use that time as a benchmark for the next marathon I do as at the time I hated it but now I want to do another! Thank you all again and I shall continue to come to the club runs and track sessions to see how much I improve in future events!

Virgin Money London Marathon Volunteers - Sunday 28th April 2019

Also Miranda Thompson, Simon & Debra Morgan, Trevor Eley, Lillie Bamford,
Irene Wilson, Chris Kemp, Daisy Greenwood, Danny Wong, Elliot Barclay,
Francesca Barclay, Gursharin Marar, Will Boyd, Michaela Irwin & Duncan Stewart.


#ThanksaBillion
Hi East London Runners,
Hope you and your team are well rested following a fantastic day on Sunday. Our 39th edition of the Virgin Money London Marathon was a great success and we couldn't have done it without the support and hard work from you and your team. On behalf of the whole team here at London Marathon Events we would like to say a huge thank you to every one of your volunteers and we hope you all had enjoyable days!
The 2019 Virgin Money London Marathon saw a record 42, 570 finishers (over 2000 more than 2018) and a new course record in the men's race from the great Eliud Kipchoge who ran 2:02:37. Brigid Kosgei ran the fastest ever second half of a marathon and claimed her first title. Daniel Romanchuk won his first title too and also smashed the Flying 400 by 2.3 seconds, and Manuela Schar won by an astonishing five minutes. We also had 38 new Guinness World records set, so all in all a fantastic day!
If you have been on our social media accounts you will see some of the personal thanks from runners, but here are a few you can pass on to your team:
From the expo to the finish line your marshalls were smiley, enthusiastic, professional and epitomised the best of Britain! #ThanksABillion
Every single marshal & volunteer I interacted with from the expo to the finish was amazing. Helpful, kind & supportive. We are so lucky to have had them involved.
The volunteers were amazing. They worked so hard and to think they probably put in more hours than those of us running!!
Thank you to all of the volunteers for such wonderful support and for giving us the best race day possible
Thanks to all the volunteers!! Everyone had a smile on their face a good luck message and a well done at the end. Puts such a smile on your face
Thank you so much for looking after us and cheering us on. It made all the difference. You guys were amazing and did a brilliant job
Thank you so much to every volunteer - you were all amazing. From directing us to the start, bag collection, water stations, marshalling the roads right to the end handing out medals. You did it with a smile & cheered me on!
Incredible event... thanks to organisers, Marshall's, volunteers and the crowd.... just wow
Incredible day made perfect by the amazing help from start to finish. Massive thanks to all!
Such an incredibly well organised event! The staff and volunteers were amazing!! Everyone told me it’s an incredible atmosphere/experience and they were not wrong!!! Thank you all!
It would not be the day it is without the volunteers. Thank you so much for all your advice, support, comfort and praise. An invaluable contribution to the unique spirit of the #LondonMarathon
The volunteers were fantastic. They were so enthusiastic and kept us all going. If I could say thank you to each and everyone of them I would.
As always we appreciate any feedback, both positive and negative, to help ensure we can make our 2020 Virgin Money London Marathon the best ever. Please do send through any comments to volunteers@londonmarathonevents.co.uk.
#ThanksaBillion, Kind Regards Lucy

John Booth: Here's my slightly belated (and somewhat lengthy!) race report from Sunday
- and many thanks to ELR for the place through the club ballot. #ELRStrong
I've been a member of ELR since 2013, having got into running casually a couple of years earlier, as part of rehabilitation from a complex knee injury. At the time, I was working in Basildon and living on the Isle of Dogs, and had just signed up for a charity place in the 2014 London marathon; I picked ELR so I could whizz round the North Circ on a Monday night on my way home in time for Grant's track sessions. Although I still live on IoD, I'm working much closer to home (Whitechapel) and so now rarely make the Mon or Wed sessions, but still enjoy representing the club at ELVIS races, and chatting with other members either on Strava or in person when I see them on the 'circuit'.
Since joining the club, and watching the progress of eminent runners such as Paul Quinton, Brown bros, Mark Boulton, Thomas Grimes, William James Pearce, Antonio Martín Romero, Billy Rayner, Scott McMillan, Andy Kumar, Spencer Evans, Dan Gritton, Russell Price and Aaron J Browne (to name just a few!) I have come to regard the marathon as the ultimate validation of the distance runner, and in particular the 3 hour barrier as the benchmark of the amateur 'great'. I deferred in 2014 due to injury, and my one previous shot at the marathon was thus in 2015, which ended in a chaotic succession of unplanned portaloo stops, cramp around canary wharf, and ultimately an undiginified walk down the Mall to the finish line – but still a respectable time of 3.20. The pain was quickly forgotten, and although I did not try too hard to find another race, I decided to put my name each year into the ballot, and then the club ballot, until such a time as 'fate pointed her fickle finger' at me.
…and this was the year. 10th out of the hat at the club draw, Take 2 was suddenly on. I've had a very good couple of running years – getting close to 17min for 5K, and 'placing' in a few low profile 10k races, so felt confident that this was a good time to try again. I remember announcing this to Dan Gritton at Southwark Parkrun back in October, and declaring that I was going to 'bash out' 30k the next day including 10k at 'marathon pace' (4min/k!!) which I duly did , at the expense of barely being able to walk for the next fortnight! Subsequently I took training a little bit more sensibly, although following my own bespoke (ie made up as I went along) programme. I ran 81 mins for a Velopark half in Feb and then close to 80mins in the Big Half (both substantial improvements on my previous PB) having racked up almost 75miles per week in training during the first couple of months of the year. I do think perhaps I peaked a bit too early, as my mileage dropped quite a lot in March and early April due to work pressures, but I still felt quite confident as the big day approached.
Living on the Isle of Dogs, the London marathon means a great deal to me as the course runs almost by my house and is a yearly fixture in my diary for spectating. It also means that I can walk straight through the foot tunnel and up to the start line within about 30 minutes, meaning there was no danger of being late! I started from Z1 green, which meant I had a pretty free run of things with little 'traffic' in the early kilometres – contrary to many people's experiences, I had to make a concerted effort to keep my pace under control in the first few kilometres, and almost no weaving in and out of bodies was required. My legs having felt blinking awful in the fortnight leading up to race day (perhaps not helped by an ill-timed skiing holiday to Norway in early April), suddenly all the fatigue seemed to be lifted, and my target pace of 4:00-4:10 per/km seemed relatively easy. I dipped under this into the 3:5x's for a few k's before Cutty Sark and had to make a conscious effort to reel it back in. I had done no hydration /nutrition practice in training (sensible?!) so had made up a strategy for race day where I was going to have one Clif shot chew (basically an overpriced jelly baby) every 5 k, and a few good swigs at every water station, and initially this seemed to work ok.
I was pleased to make it past Tower Bridge and half way in just over 1:25 bang on target and still feeling strong (it had all gone wrong just before there in 2015) and started to see some familiar faces in the crowd which gave me a little spur. I knew that my wife and kid(s) my son was adamant he would be watching me continuously on the TV would be waiting on the Isle of Dogs near Mudchute, and I was keen to keep my steady pace going at least until then. I was surprised to see Grant on the Island wielding some sort of megaphone, and thrilled when he gave me an enthusiastic name check which got a great reaction from the crowd. Before I knew it I was high-fiving my daughter and I was off up into Canary Wharf.
and then it all started to go wrong! Billy drew alongside me on the exit from Canary Wharf and gave me some encouragement reminding me that the ELR water station was only round the corner , although I knew I was running into trouble and my legs were gone. My pace was dropping at this point, and 4:30's were becoming 4:40s and 4:50s. As expected, the ELR water station was magnificent, although my body language probably gave away that I was no longer entirely in control of my own fate!
I managed to drag myself on through the Run Dem Crew 'Cheer Station' (which incidentally is also fab) and then passed a friend (Gio, of Southwark Parkrun fame) who had stopped to walk. I tried to gee him up and get him going to no avail, and I think perhaps ironically this was the final straw for me. About 500m down the road, that little devil on my shoulder said 'if it's ok for him to walk, why not you?' , and so I did. The Wall is not something that one can easily describe unless you've lived through it. It's not really pain, nor is it fatigue, nor is it something that can be surmounted just by willpower alone. It is a total, inexplicable and profound intolerance of running which seemingly has no remedy!
The next 5 kilometres is an experience which will live long in my memory , unable to run for more than about 50 metres at a time in some sort of weird hobbly-trot, and then walking again for minutes on end before trying again. Time began to haemorrhage, and my dreams of a sub-3 hour marathon slipped away like grains of sand through my fingers. Past came the 3 hour pacers, and an endless stream of runners, and eventually the 3.15 pacers too. There is no where to hide in the London marathon, and the ignominy of the long 'walk of shame' to the finish line with spectators valiantly trying to 'pick me up' again every step of the way (which I tried obligingly to do, before stopping again 50 feet down the road) was a tough tough time. Seemingly an age later, and feeling like death I finally made it to the final straights and the signs counting down the final metres ' I calculated that if I could run continuously for the last kilometre then maybe, just maybe, I could still squeak inside my time from 2015 for a PB. And so I picked my feet up one last time and shuffled to the finish mats , 3h19, 1 minute inside my previous best. A far stretch from what I had hoped but some satisfaction nonetheless, and I hadn't let it beat me!
I'm very grateful indeed to ELR for the place in the marathon and the opportunity to run this very special race for a second time. Although I may not have achieved the time I set out for (or the self-declared 'validation' as a serious club-runner, which I've attached to the 3 hour marathon time) I have learned a lot about myself, both my strengths and limitations, in training and in the race. Will I do another marathon? , I think that depends on how good I am at 'forgetting' (which most runners manage within about 24 hours of the experience!)

ITU World Duathlon Championships in Pontevedra, Spain - Saturday 27th April 2019

Standard Distance Female 40 to 44
Ava Lee 2:29:34 (6th out of 18 in age group)

Standard Distance Male 50 to 54
Danny Lee 2:22:43 (18th out of 37 in age group)
Including 2 minutes in the penalty box for "drafting" - cruel and not true!!!

The Fox Half Marathon (Trail run, Guildford) - Saturday 27th April 2019

3rd place for Joe Gunn this year in a trail race which although billed as a half
marathon of 21km, was close to 24km last year. Last year Joe was 9th in 1.54.17.
The winner last year was ELR's Thomas Grimes in 1.32.58. He failed to tell
anyone so it's missing from the ELR records.

parkrun - all venues - Saturday 27th April 2019

parkrun - all venues - Saturday 20th April 2019

72 parkruns at 26 venues,
5 first finishers & 2 100th parkruns,
1 age category record & 9 ELR course records,
17 debuts and 7 course pbs.

Crown To Crown 5km - Friday 19th April 2019

Run Through Victoria Park Easter Half Marathon - Friday 19th April 2019

Run Through Easter 10km, Victoria Park - Friday 19th April 2019

Pictures available in Photo Gallery

Alexandra reports: I felt a little guilty putting my vest on this morning
as I've been very MIA due to injury and general life but it was so great seeing
other ELR-ers at Victoria Park this morning both running and supporting.
Well done all who were running! And thank you Maya Goodwin for helping with trying
to convince my mate to join ELR , it's a work in progress!
Shout out to Maya too on a PB! You little star! X


Maya Reports: Runthough Easter 10k. 1:04:22.
A PB!! An actual PB!! Not a course PB, or 'my fastest time since 2017' PB, AN ACTUAL PB
I'm so pleased. I wanted to slow down so badly in the last half a mile. My lungs were burning, I felt sick and convinced myself I was feeling dizzy.
But I kept Marc's voice in my head, chasing me round that last half a mile, he was louder than that pesky monkey that tells you to stop.
Oh, and they aren't on Facebook, but a huge well done to Emma Hammerston and Nicky Hedges, new ELR joiners, who ran brilliantly, and now just need to get their club vests to run in!
The sun is shining, and it's the start of the weekend. Just perfect..

Skylarks 3km - Wednesday 17th April 2019

B.A.A. Boston Marathon - Monday 15th April 2019

Paul reports: Belated Boston Marathon report. Sorry, a long one
My training build up to Boston Marathon was less than ideal when in mid December I tore my calf on a Sat afternoon on my 2nd run of the day (P.S. I had run twice a day many times in my build up to London Marathon in 2018 so it was more cumulative fatigue than just that one day, work stress, lack of appropriate sleep, too much running etc etc). Anyway, a few trips to the physio and 6 weeks of no running or run/walking, including some 2hr walks in Epping Forest with 6 litre's of weight in a backpack, the things we do! So by the time February came around I had lost a lot of fitness and put on about 3kg's of weight. My coach and I had a lot of work to do before 15th April!
Fast forward 2.5 months and I managed to put some decent training in (including 270 miles in March), lose the excess 3kg of weight and was probably in 2:51/2:52 shape if I were to venture a guess.
The Fri we were due to fly to Boston I went for an easy 20min jog and felt slight discomfort in my left ankle. The rest of the day and on the flight it hurt. When I woke up on Sat morning in Boston it was quite swollen (see pic attached), I must have turned it somehow on the Thur run or just walking around but dont remember doing it. Off to the expo and some sightseeing around Boston, not great for a sore ankle but my wife and son had joined me on this trip so would not have been fair to them to be stuck inside our hotel even if that was probably the best thing for my ankle. I found a chemist and started taking anti inflammatories which helped reduce the swelling, luckily there was no bruising and a few email exchanges and pics with a GP suggested it was probably just a slight sprain and I could probably start the marathon but if the pain got severe that I should stop running.
Mon morning and Boston Marathon, the unique thing about this race is that it is point to point. You start in a little town called Hopkinton and run back into Boston central so they bus you out in waves depending on your start time. Glad I took the advice of others who had run it before and brought a few extra layers with to keep warm as you in a tent on the floor for about 2hrs before the race actually starts. If you run it in the future bring something to sit on, a floor sheet etc They collect extra layers of clothing and donate them to charity before you head to the start.
Before the start we sang the national anthem and 2 fighter jets flew over, proper raising the hair on your arms stuff and very appropriately American, fantastic!
The first few miles of the race is downhill so you cant help but go slightly faster than your planned pace with no extra effort, 'braking' on downhills is much worse for your quads than just relaxing into them and allowing gravity to do its thing.
My ankle was ok in the beginning, the adrenaline probably helped but I started to feel it after 5 miles or so. The pain varied from slight discomfort to making me consider whether I should stop but was never really severe enough to make me think I was doing any permanent damage so I kept going. I think it definitely affected my running form as I tried to put as little weight as possible on my left side.
At around 20km you head past the very famous Wellesley College girls, some holding signs saying 'kiss me', some of the guys I was running with took them up on their offer, I decided losing 5 seconds was not worth it but the wall of noice was amazing and much needed!
There are some smaller inclines before 16 miles but the real inclines start around there and then the biggest hill, aptly named 'heartbreak hill' is at around 21 miles. The hills in Boston were not as bad as I expected but they do obviously slow you down and sap your energy at the worst part of the race, by 21 miles even in a flat marathon you feeling knackered so the hills really break you. But worse than the ups are the downs, while you catch up some time your quads take a hammering, as I sit here typing this 4 days later mine still hurt!!
My pace really dropped off the last 3-4 miles, thats when those 6 weeks of missed training caught up with me and I was just wishing for the finishing line but I knew it was still going to be sub 3hrs even if it was 3-4min slower than I was hoping for on the day. The finish is really good and the wall of noise down Boylston Street was amazing!
The crowd support was really good throughout and the organisation really slick. Boston Marathon lives up to all its hype and history, the original big city Marathon! I will be back to run it again one day thats for sure but there are a few others I need to do first.

Herts Easter Hunt Sportive - 64 miles - Sunday 14th April 2019

Dirty One Thirty, Kielder Castle Forest Centre - Sunday 14th April 2019

Sheffield Half Marathon - Sunday 14th April 2019

Leipzig Marathon - Sunday 14th April 2019

Schneider Electric Marathon de Paris - Sunday 14th April 2019

Pictures available in Photo Gallery

Jimmy Dale reports: Paris race report - Allez allez allez
I'd signed up for Paris back at the start of the year after a 'slightly nuts' 2018 and keen to see what I could do if I just did the one marathon! Originally I'd wanted to shoot for sub 3 but having done a plan with Grant (something I'd thoroughly recommend), I comprised and agreed that 3.15 was a more realistic goal.
Training had gone well but I'd had 2 injury set backs, lower hamstring tendonitis and plantar fasciitis. This had set my training back, with the cherry on the top being a sticking cold the weekend before. I spent most of the week before trying to recover and worrying I wasn't going to manage it and having set myself 3.15 as a gold target, 3.20 as silver and 3.25 as bronze, I was contemplating rethinking them. That said I decided to stick to the same plan and go out with 3.15 pacer and hang on as long as I could. Many of you will know my wife Sarah ran her first marathon in 2017 and ran 3.31.25 so this was the ultimate backstop, with anything slower being unacceptable! I even set other 'people' markers to race, with James’ time at Rotterdam (3.14.04), Robert's time at Manchester (3.19.28) and Ellie's time at Geneva (3.26.15) all fresh in my memory as impressive results I'd love to equal or better (I really am that competitive!)
I'd traveled out with Arthur and we arrived and went to the expo, grabbed some dinner and headed for an early night. I had to be in the pen at 8.05 (Arthur had a later start) so left with time only to discover you couldn’t buy a ticket so ended up running the 1.5 miles to the start line (always a good way to warm up!) This also had the benefit of helping me to realise that despite being 2 degrees, it was too warm to wear an undertop so switched for the vest instead (As it was this was very fortuitous as the sun came out and I actually ended up getting sun burnt!)
I set off with the 3.15 pacer, who was really erratic, doing the first mile 15 seconds under pace, then picking up to 15 seconds faster for half a mile, before slowing down again. I decided to abandon the pacer and run my own race, sure at some point he'd catch me up.
I'd read a blog that had said the race was 4 parts, 8 miles in the city, 4 in the park, 8 back in the city (including a 1 mile tunnel) and 4 in another park. The blogger had warned that the french do not have the same passion for cheering marathons that the English do and the parks in particular had no spectators at all. There were chunks where there were some spectators and you could hear the familiar cry of 'Allez Allez Allez' (translates as going going going!)
All in all it's a really pretty route, right through the centre of the city taking in lots of the sights and you really feel you see the city, even with a few boards up to make sure you didn't miss key things.
At mile 16 my morning coffee had gone to work and I desperately dived into a portaloo. As an aside, the toilets are shocking (not out of the norm I know) and are few and far between to boot, just incase anyone decided to do the race next year I recommend forward planning!)
I came back out and tried to catch the pacer who had rejoined me at mile 13. However I came out and set off heading straight into the mile long underground tunnel. I don't know if it was stopping, the tunnel or the incline for the second half of the mile but from then on I struggled getting the pace back. I was desperately doing mental maths working out what I needed to do and calculated that is I stayed under 8mm (3.15 is 7.25mm) for the remaining 10 miles, I'd make it in at a time I'd be proud off. The next 5 miles felt like a slog and at mile 22 I had to pull to side to wretch as one of the few gels I used had not sat well with my stomach. That did the trick through and I picked up for the remaining miles, even managing to pick the pace up a bit. I remember looking at my watch and throwing everything at it for the final km when I realised how close to 3.22 I was. Alas I was just short but non the less, ecstatic with my time!
It's crazy to think that it was only at Manchester last year I finally broke sub 4 and that in Dec 17 I had a new pb of 4.21 (just after joining ELR). I know there's more in there, definitely 3.15, almost certainly faster. Let's see where I am this time next year. In the meantime, so happy with my time and excited to not be running a marathon for a few months at least.

Brighton Marathon - Sunday 14th April 2019

Jakub Czeczotka: - Brighton Marathon race report
Brighton was meant to be my 6th marathon and the first one where I knew the training has been pretty bad so there is no need to worry about the time. If it wasn't for the fact that these things are entered months in advance and require travel and personal arrangements I'd have probably given it a miss. I decided to do it for the medal, enjoy as much as I can and most of all don't be shy to walk every now and then, uphills in particular. My last marathon in early November (New York) ended up with an injury and since then I've only managed to run about 360km (that's about 67km a month, 16km a week, with the 'long' run being 16k a week before the marathon) so more likely maintenance than marathon training.
Weather forecast suggested it was going to be quite cold (4-8˚C) so I decided to wear two layers. When I arrived in the start village in Preston Park it turned out to be sunny and quite warm so I instantly knew I’m overdressed for the occasion. I signed up for the 4h~4h30m wave and we started at 9:55. The thing you do first is a loop of Preston Park and this means steep uphill followed by downhill downtown. This was actually very enjoyable - when in Brighton the support is as good as any big city marathon. At km 8 I met with my family and managed to get rid of the jacked and grab a sports drink. A short walk uphill St. James's St and the route took us towards Rottingdean. I need to say this part of the course is quite spectacular - you have green meadows to your left and cliffs and the sea to your right. Stunning views! Another walking break uphill as we turn round to go back to Brighton. At this point (~15k) I glanced at my garmin which was predicting finish time significantly below 4h mark. I knew this would be a tall ask considering my 3:52:11 PB so I was only expecting the wheels to come off the bus in the later stages of the race. Having said that I kept my heart rate in check and was consistently keeping below the 5:30 pace (with the exception of walking breaks) so there was a glimmer of hope that I may actually do not so badly today.
As we got back to Brighton I met my family again at 20k and had a chance to change into dry top and grab another drink. The next part of the course is mentally taxing as do 7km out-and-back on New Church Rd. I started noticing some pacer balloons way ahead of me and thought they may be the 4h pacers from the previous wave. As I caught up with them on Kingsway about 30k mark it turned out I was right. I kept getting ahead of them, do a walk break, fall behind and catch up again. Cat and mouse game with the pacers and their fun bus. The part between 31 and 37k is the most difficult as you enter some sort of industrial estate along Basin Road South and don't really get much of a view. You're running away from the finish line, the support is limited and you're surrounded by some of the finest corrugated metal warehouse architecture south of England has to offer.
When I finally got out of there I was welcomed by a strong head wind and a very distant view of the British Airways 360 where I though the finish line had been (actually it was over a kilometre further down the promenade). Most of my body (legs in particular) was hurting but I realised it's not worse than my previous marathons and I may actually be in business today. The support has picked up and despite the BA360 on the horizon approaching very, very slowly I took reassurance in the number of people I was passing by (and the fact that I passed the second group of 4h pacers). With a parkrun to go I was actually on route of Hove Promenade parkrun which I ran before and really enjoyed (2 laps on the seafront, flat and windy). Past 40k mark it’s basically home run, the final stretch and as garmin was still giving me some unexpected finish time I decided to focus on resisting the temptation to walk. I knew I was at a point that had I stopped it would had been very difficult to start again. I did run the last 3k and to my big surprise I arrived at the finish line to celebrate a fresh new PB! Be it by 34 seconds only but still ridiculously beyond expectations. I didn't actually do the usual pre-race gold/silver/bronze targets as my expectations were so low I'd probably be happy with anything below 4h30m mark (this would make my 3rd marathon time). If I did I think 4h would be gold and I would not consider beating my previous PB of 3:52:11 realistic. As it turned out I ran 3:51:37 and I honestly don't know why!
My best guess is it was the strength training I did as part of Achilles rehab over the last few months (but where would the endurance come from?) or it might have been the run-walk-run strategy from the start (not practiced before and completely ad-hoc) combined with uphill walks. It could have been the nutrition and hydration which somehow allowed me to tap into the holy Grail of marathon running and become fat adapted. The truth is I don't know. My experience of five marathons is one going quite well, two ending with a disappointment and two more with injuries (and depressingly slow times as a result). Now this time I got a PB almost for free and I'm really curious why!
Whatever the reason, after a series of injuries and illnesses, I think I got my running mojo back and I'm really looking forward towards the rest of the season. Happy to see hard training on the horizon and may even swap late night beer for a plank or two.
Some final points:
* Great running in central Brighton and stunning views on the road towards Rottingdean
* Past 30k the route is mentally testing with industrial estates and strong wind on the way back
* A lot of running in straight lines with what feels like an almost endless stream of runners ahead
* Paper cups with drinks which I was fine with as I was walking
* Pacers run with helium filled balloons which, surprise, surprise, don't put up a good fight against a fence crowned with barbed wire.

parkrun - all venues - Saturday 13th April 2019

City Of London/Highgate Harriers Open Meet, Parliament Hill Fields - Wednesday 10th April 2019

Chase The Sun 5km, QEOP - Wednesday 10th April 2019

Chase the Sun Olympic Park
I decided to run the Chase the Sun Olympic Park last Saturday, after my soon-to-be announced she was gonna 'try this Parkrun business' I always spoke to her about. I knew I was up for some serious pacemaking at 6 minutes or more (I'm Italian, I still work in kms, not miles). Still, after that I felt I needed some lively run to keep the excitement of a newfound leg speed up, so I opted for a midweek challenge.
Besides, after such a long winter, a name suggesting some summerish scenario was quite appealing, despite the steep bill (£22, taking the mick?), and the persistent low temperature.
Extra challenge: I had to reach Stratford from Hertford on public transport. Actually no: ten minutes before leaving I found that my train was cancelled . My colleague Lawrence decided to come to the rescue, drove me to Finsbury Park, from where I got to Stratford in good time thanks to some lucky train combination.
Race practicalities are well organised: get there, queue up, get your race number and chip, some warm up, stretching, off you go. The scenery is great: such an urban gem like our Olympic Park deserves its own race. Marshalling is great: marshals help out with the route, cheer everyone up, everything feels great.
One doesn't have to decide whether to run a 5K or a 10K until 15 metres before the 5K finish line. If at that point you want to continue you just run two more laps (if you can of course).
I was determined to avoid the usual rookie mistake of rushing out of the start blocks, and tried to begin at a gentle 3:50 pace (6:10/mile, I'll have to learn), and I felt I was taking it quite easy. When Strava told me I was in fact clocking 3:36 (5:45) on the first km I thought that I was up for either a great finish time or a great finish nightmare.
I ran the next three kilometres at just about the same pace always trailing a tall fella. At about half mile from the finish line I envisioned my gray-haired Superman moment and decided to press on; the fella didn't peel off immediately, but for once I didn't relent, and dodging a dodgy 'straight-for-10K-left-for-5K-finish-line' junction I maintained my position (then unknown) and lost perhaps one or two secs.
Of course I'm happy for the result: all is going in the right direction - extra effort is followed by better times - and hopefully this will give me motivation when this equation is not directly satisfied. I look up to those that go faster than me and try to close the gap; and I'm learning that in any case everyone has their own target to chase. In this respect my result of tonight is not that great when compared to my soon-to-be's of Saturday - not referring to her first Parkrun time, but to the fact that she was out of bed that early on a Saturday morning.

ASICS Greater Manchester Marathon - Sunday 7th April 2019

Antonio Martin Romero's Manchester Marathon Report: This year I decided to do the Manchester Marathon when we found out the due date for our baby was the day before the London Marathon haha, that also meant that my wife couldn't go to Manchester with me, so my father told me he would like to see me racing there and he bought a direct flight from Seville to Manchester, which added a bit more of motivation to my training, as I couldn't let him down.
I went to Manchester on Friday to avoid all the hassle to travel from London on Saturday, as the day before the marathon I like to be relax and try to be the less possible time on my feet, but I also like to walk a little bit, so I went to the event village to know exactly how to get there.
On the race day, I get to Old Trafford with plenty of time and went to the start with 20 minutes to go. I did a little warm-up and was ready to start. I stuck to the plan, avoiding running too fast at the beginning, and being patient to recover some places in the second half. I was running in a group for the first 5 miles, but they dropped the pace a little bit and I had to accelerate and started running own a little bit until I managed to contact with the group led by the legend Steve Way around mile 11. We passed the half way in 1h13.53, and after 14 miles Steve and most of the runners in our group slowed down, but I was lucky and two runners kept the pace and we start to run together. We passed the mile 20 and I was feeling very good, I just had to keep the pace and the PB would be in my hand. We were running at a very even pace, very comfortable, my tank was fine, so I focused on running with the most efficient running form, in fact, this time it was being very pleasant, different to Berlin, where I had to talk a couple of times to myself. My father was a master with the tram, I saw him five times during the course! With one mile to go you could see the finish in the distance, it seemed more than one mile! I managed to keep the pace and finished with a time of 2h27.26 and 13th overall, just over one minute slower than the second one, with the second half in 1h13.33, the fastest ever time from someone from Jerez (Spain), a dream. It was great to see Shahib and Stuart after the finish line. My father was there shouting, I didn't let him down, that made train hard the last 12 weeks and don't give up when my body was very tired and I had to do a tough workout. I think the key were those workouts with nothing left in the tank, so basically that's how you feel in the last miles, and you have to train that bit as well. This time it was slightly easier than previous times. Now time to rest and focus a little bit on the speed before starting the training for Berlin in July, where I hope to dip under 2h27 . Thanks to the club for all the support and all the messages I have received in the last day, much appreciated. Hopefully, I will see you all in the pub

Ellie Wilkinson: Race report from me !
Manchester marathon was brilliant. It is a flat and friendly course with an excellent local atmosphere. It was brilliantly organised, only thing was the start was a bit chaotic for me, trying to get to pen B which meant scrambling past all the other pens. In getting to my pen, I realised I had actually got in near the front, starting way too far forward with the speedsters, which in hind site did me no favours in setting off too quickly.
I am usually quite consistent in my pacing, so I am a little frustrated that I went off too quickly and did the first half almost as quickly as I would race a half marathon the second half was much harder and I was dropping pace by the mile. I guess I was testing the theory whether I could push it slightly at the start, but no, the key is definitely stick to your plan & maintain a comfortable steady pace or you will pay for it later. That said, the atmosphere & having my family, school friends and Nick holding a banner throughout the course made it an amazing day. There was support the whole way, with hardy northerners keeping you moving 'go on girl'
it was nice to see Selena, Gemma, Rob and Jacob on route - it is always such a boost to be wearing the club colours and doing it for East London! 4 times marathon runner, BQ & GFA retained. I shouldn't be too hard on myself eh so happy for everyone who smashed their targets this weekend.,B. Good luck to everyone for the marathons ahead this marathon season

Maud Hodson reports: Manchester Marathon Race Report
One thing Ive learnt this year is that PBs come in many shapes and sizes. I came into this race with big hopes, but also nervous and feeling the pressure of expectation after the start Ive had to the year.
The plan was to use the first couple of miles to settle into 8.30 pace then hold it there. Until mile 20 it went like clockwork. I still felt apprehensive, but my confidence increased as the miles ticked past nicely. And then the going got tough. Its just a slump - everyone has a slump. No. From mile 20 until 25 each mile was slower than the last. I was demoralised and furious with myself - the race starts at 20 miles - how could I have made such a rookie error?
I was within a whisker of walking off the course and DNFing. Twice I decided that the next step would be my last and I would walk. Yet somehow I didnt stop. Dont over-think it. Just keep putting one foot in front of the other. This is what happened at the Essex 20 - just hang in. But I was sure that my dreams were gone.
Then, with about 3 miles to go I looked at my watch, and realised that actually the GFA time was still on. That would be a consolation prize worth having. And then a bit further on I realised I could still get a PB. My pace recovered a little. And then with a mile or so left I realised I could still go sub 3.50 - Cinderella, you shall go to the ball! I ran the home straight as hard as I could. 3.49.29! As soon as I crossed the line I started retching and had to be helped by a marshal. Twice I got cramp on the way to the baggage tent and had to grab random strangers for support. (One of them was wearing a Hackney Half T shirt and came from Stratford).
Looking back I think I was a bit hard on myself. Its four years since I really raced a marathon (last year I just tried to survive), so hard to be sure what pace I could do this time. And my fastest mile split was 8.29, so I hadnt really been rash. I think I can be proud of PB number 6 of 2019.
And what a wonderful day for ELR - a new club record from Antonio and PBs from so many of us. Also lovely to see Stuart, Geoff, Shahib & Russell around the course.
#lifeintheolddogyet


Lucy Barron reports: Another Manch related post!
I set out to get sub 4 by the skin of my teeth as I didnt think I was capable of much more as that would already be a fair chunk off my previous PB of 4:14, I had an idea of what I would need to do but no real plan as such, but after talking to Jimmy Dale last week he gave me some advice and an ACTUAL plan that I felt I could stick too stick behind the 4hr pacer and over take them later on if you can that seemed do able....... then after chatting to Ellie over lunch on Saturday I discovered there were pacers for 3:59 and 3:58 so with a bit of encouragement I was persuaded to find the 3:58 pacer......except come race day Im making the chaotic walk to my wave only to discover that 3:58 wasnt in my wave, It was so packed I couldnt see any other pacers so rather than stress myself out about my plan I decided to just stick in my allotted wave and just trust that I could do it on my own. I felt amazing for the majority of the course, I was regimented with my gels and made sure not to exert myself where I didnt need too ( I wasnt even acknowledging people when they cheered my name so apologies to any ELRs I ignored ). I realised at 13 miles how far ahead of the 4hr pacer I was and when somebody cheered youre smashing it I looked at my watch smiled and thought to myself YES I REALLY AM aha. I knew I had it in the bag if I just kept pushing, as usual the last 10k was tough but Id made such good time up until then that for the very first time for me in a marathon I got to 20 and didnt need to stress about the last stretch of miles.
Manchester was my best performance to date and Ill never forget it, I exceeded my goal way beyond what I ever thought I could achieve, I crossed the line in 3hrs 51, rang my mum and burst into tears (because Im a big 28 year old baby)
It was lovely as always to have ELR in full force, apologies again for completely ignoring any ELRs spectating and cheering along the course.
Big thank you to Gemma,Ellie,Robyn and Greg for making such a fantastic weekend even more memorable!

ASICS Greater Manchester Marathon - Sunday 7th April 2019

Pictures available in Photo Gallery

Marc Akers reports: Manchester marathon run report
Having run Liverpool marathon last year & having a complete nightmare
I booked Manchester a few days after making sure this would be different
Training went well until Feb when I got man flu & missed some long runs & seeing my granddaughter until March
I got back on track with training and before I new it I was in Manchester on Friday having dinner with some of the werrington joggers from Peterborough.
Saturday we had arranged to go out during the day
National football museum & then to the imperial war museum & later to meet up with my ELR club mates for carb loading.
Sunday I was up around 6 to have a pre race massage & then some breakfast well that was the plan
Got away from my massage late & had a shake for breakfast & then walked to the start with Jason Levy Jackie & Billy
It was pretty crowded in our pen & strange that Jackie & Billy could walk into our pens with Jason & me
We waited around until 9:30 & then we were off
My plan was to run 10m/m for as long as possible and walk the water stations & take gels at 14 18 & 22 miles walking as I took them I knew this would slow my finish time down but under 5hrs was my goal
At 5k I still felt good so pushed & was weaving my way through crowds of people walking the miles went past quickly & then I heard a woman shout the finish is round the corner I looked up & could see the finish & my watch Beeb 26 miles so I pushed with what I had left I looked up at the clock as I finished & it said 4hrs 56 mins & I knew Id gone under 4hrs 30 so I was completely blown away.
Now time to relax and recover
Thank you Grant Conway for ur support & training plan & Stuart Stupot Barton Joanna Wood & Jason levy


Nathaniel Dye reports: Manchester Marathon Race Report
The overall experience of this race reminded me why its great to be part of ELR.
Ive not been able to come to club runs recently and it was lovely to see lots of club mates again at the Saturday evening meal - good vibes!
Then on Sunday morning came the serious work of running a marathon!
This was my first experience of pacing, as Id offered to help get my brother, Jon, through his first marathon. It brought back a lot of memories, including the maranoia! After catching up for a team photo and sending more positive vibes, we set off on our 26.2 mile jaunt around Manchester. I felt like I did a pretty good job at being the voice of moderation and helped Jon avoid starting too quickly. We also made a point of maintaining constant effort (rather than speed) up and down the modest hills. This resulted in us both gaining more places than we lost and maintaining a really even pace around 8:45 per mile. So far, so good!
Then, as we entered the last five miles, Jon hit the wall. Hard. We've since analysed what we could have done to avoid this and came to the conclusion that there wasn't really anything. We set a pace based on a couple of 20 mile training runs and nutrition was not an issue. I guess marathon running can never be an exact science!
In any case, the wall was hit and with very little left in the legs and lungs, I watched on in wondrous pride as my brother struggled on with only grit and determination to go on. We kept going through 24 miles, slowing down, but still passing many others. At this point, there was no option but to walk for a while, but I was seriously impressed when he somehow summoned something in the empty reserves to run again, taking the race home and getting over the line, still running, in a thoroughly well deserved 4h10.
In hindsight, I was not quite the moderating influence I thought I might have been, but we did it.
It is quite something to vicariously relive that first marathon experience, including the joy of the post-marathon club meet up - awash with the joy of a host of PBs.
Now, lets see if I can make it to track tonight...

Alexandra Rutishauser-Perera: Another Race Report for Manchester 2019 (not the shortest, sorry!)
At the end of the training of my last marathon, I told myself that I would stick to one a year only this lasted for around 2 months :-) till I decided to enter Manchester the night of the London marathon club ballot With the ELR crew going over, this felt like Manchester was the new London!
Travelling on Friday made it feels like a great escape weekend with the extra bonus of jogging the lovely Stretford parkrun with many fellow marathon runners… I usually like to be on my own the night before a marathon but that fabulous carb loading with the ELR gang actually managed to calm my nerves especially finishing it by a sprint to the tram with Maud(in heels !!!)
Forgetting about superstition, a bunch of us agreed to meet in front of the first aid tent for a pre-race pic, then made our way to our respective pens with a long queue at the loos I decided to start right in front of my pen, learning from London where I had to overtake so many people. I had a plan (which Grant found too conservative) and really wanted to stick to it I have never hit the wall during a marathon, but on that one, I was really going for a best time and I knew I couldn't afford messing up my pace.
That was actually the hardest thing over the first half: holding back to not go too fast , I was pacing myself at 10:15 min/miles , slowing down when it was needed But there is something reassuring about it too, knowing that you are going slower than you could… At around mile 4, I met Jack who was doing his first marathon and was aiming to do it under 4.30, so we stayed together We chatted a bit about our most memorable races, laughed at the boards , the kids, saw a huge turtle on the way and checked regularly if the other one was feeling ok . We soon found Marc It suited me well to stay just behind him as I knew he would be a bit quicker than me while at the same time, I found it comforting to have an ELR in sight in addition to wonderful supporter Geoff that I managed to spot twice in the crowd!
I reached 13.1 miles in 2:13 which I had planned for 2:15 this was pretty good and quite reassuring Stomach was good this time so I indulged on the chocolate Outrage and Salted caramel gels. I was still feeling quite OK legs still quite fresh so, I pushed slightly quicker at mile 15 with (just) 11 miles more to go as I had told Jack previously but he didn't manage to follow By that time, Marc and I kept meeting each other, I would overtake him at the water stations, he would overtake me the following mile I tried to stick with him for a bit but was too afraid of the 3 last miles and let him go I was right cause Marc, obviously had still some more in the tank while I was starting to struggle to stay at a pace under 10:30min/mile I knew a while ago that a PB was in the bag, but there was also a possibility to go under 4:30 ! The holy grail for me I had to dig really deep in the last 3 miles to manage it I was taking Lucozade tablets every mile to occupy my mind The legs were going but were refusing to go quicker Last mile in sight I had to do it in less than 10 mins and that's when the cramping started I started to swear (internally, Frank. the CoC was not breached ) Not now, not now, I had to go on, I was so close As I was grimacing, I saw the finishing line in sight and Shahib and Stuart (thanks, guys!) this gave me the boost I needed to sprint the last 300 yards and finish in 4:29:17 !
I could barely walk but realised I still had a bit of energy as I had the strength to complain with another woman about the men fitted only t-shirts ! A quick look at the results (as Don as usual didn't fail us) completed the excitement with a new record for Antonio and so many PBs ! A friend of mine who had finished a while ago as well as Suzanne, Jacob, Nathaniel and their friends and families had waited for me to go to the pub which was really sweet, it was a long way but I was delighted to see the wonderful Ellie and Lucy (who was more relaxed than when I saw her in the morning ) and celebrate with the gang (I was long gone after half a glass of prosecco ).
Helped by Grant, I had a plan and I managed to stick to it for which I am so grateful I have absolutely no regrets for this race, I know that if I want to go quicker next time, I will simply have to train harder but follow the same plan !

Rotterdam Marathon - Sunday 7th April 2019

James reports:- 3:14:04 - 9th marathon and best time by 7 minutes.
Knew I was in great shape for it and despite (typically) the temperature
shooting up by 6-7 degrees on race day I stayed totally in the zone throughout.
Perfect weather to hit the pubs!

Ged Browne reports: Rotterdam race report
Having previously run London and Barcelona I was looking for another spring marathon that ticked the same boxes - big city atmosphere and a flat course; Rotterdam provides both, with the added bonus of a comfortable Eurostar journey ( goodbye Ryanair cramped seats). The city is easy to get around by public transport and small enough to stay within easy access of the Expo & start line. Having arrived wearing gloves and down jacket and trained through wet and windy March, Sunday dawned bright & sunny with notifications from the organisers to expect temperatures of 20 degrees and take warm weather precautions. Why does this always happen on marathon Sunday??
The start pens were pretty crowded and after the noisy hyped-up start things stayed congested for the first mile or two as we headed across the city’s iconic Erasmus bridge. Once I hit my pace I was running comfortably for the next few miles, passing the 3.50. pacer but reining in on several occasions, aware of the importance (to me, anyway) of a steady pace. Reached half way bang on plan and feeling fine, although beginning to feel the effects of 2 hours in the sun, and we know 13.1 isnt really half-way in a marathon at all, dont we? This section of the route was quiet and suburban and although support was present, not the noisy encouragement of the city centre sections. I saw my wife around mile 15 which helped, but then as mile 16, 17, 18 went by I was having to focus more and more on holding my pace. I managed and then we hit the bridge back in to the city and the crowds were up close and noisy and gave me the encouragement to push on to mile 20 on track for a planned sub- 3.50. From here on my strategy was to pay less attention to steady pacing and race the people around me - those sessions at track and club trying to hang on to the likes of Ellie & Craig seeing me through past mile 22. However, I could feel my pace veering erratically and the combination of heat and a reduced taper due to injury began to drain the running out of me. I dropped a minute per mile and when the 3.50. pacer passed me at mile 24 I had nothing left to give. I had to dig deep just to keep moving after that, but with the crowds roaring us on made a final effort for the last half mile to cross in 3.52. 05.
So, pb by nearly 6 minutes and definitely pleased, but still a bit disappointed to have been so close for so long, yet missed out on my target - but if this game was easy and predictable, we wouldn’t do it would we?

St Clare's Hospice 10km - Sunday 7th April 2019

Jamie reports: After back to back half marathons recently was good to
get back in 10k action at St Clare Hospice in Harlow...42.56 and 22nd spot.
Whilst walking to start line overheard a couple of TOWIE wannabes talking
about marathons...one had me in stitches after saying 'It was 24 miles long!'

Adidas City Run 1 hour, St Pauls, London - Sunday 7th April 2019

Adidas City Run. How many mile laps can you do in an hour. I was aiming for as close to six as possible.
Grumpy at 7am as I leave the house to get on a bus. Stupid Central Line.
Happy at the very short loo queue in Starbucks.
Grumpy as I take my jumper off to put in bag drop. Its cold.
Grumpy for the first half mile as everyone nearly knocked me over trying to get past me (I should add that it wasnt like I started at the very front of the pack - I was nearer the back!)
Happy at the 0.5 mile stage as I see Marc Taffy and his purple volunteers at the water station.
At 1.2 miles, I spy Craig Livermore going the other way. 1.5 miles he catches me and we cheer each other on.
Happy at 1.3 miles by the Adidas cheer crew who are loud with confetti cannons.
Happy at 1.6 miles as I see my neighbour who shouts we are in the next wave and we have our car to drive home - need a lift?
Happy at the 2.3, 2.5, 3.3, 3.5 stages as I pass Adidas and the purples again.
Grumpy for the fourth lap as I realise this still isnt the last one.
Happy for the last one as I count down the minutes till the klaxon.
I leg it for all I’m worth to catch the .8 mile chip mat, but I think I just missed it. My Garmin says I made it though, so Ill take that. Happy.
A great medal and a peanut butter protein bar and a lift home. Happy.Maya Goodwin

Pendle Fell Races inc Lancashire Fell Championships (4.5miles/ 1500ft) - Saturday 6th April 2019

Pictures available in Photo Gallery

232 finishers - 4.5 miles with 1500ft of climb.
Repping ELR in the Lancashire County Fell Champs today in Pendle. Think I
finished somewhere in the top 30. Very tough. Not my cup of tea, but a nice
day for it, if you like that sort of thing. And a free beer at the end.
Race was won by Team GB Fell runner Chris Holdsworth, was quite something
seeing him caning it up the side of the mountain!

Victoria Park Open 5m - Saturday 6th April 2019

Team placing: East London Runners 4th place.

QEOP Summer Series 10km - Saturday 6th April 2019

parkrun - all venues - Saturday 6th April 2019

Dorney Lake Marathon Prep - Sunday 31st March 2019

482 finishers.
On Sunday I completed my first ever 20 mile race around Dorney Lake in preparation
for the London Marathon! It consisted of five laps, I wanted to stop after lap 4
but continued on with a time of 3:46! On the back of my training, I will be hosting
a charity fundraiser this Saturday 6th April, I know some may not be around.
However there are some great prizes up for grabs and lots of cake if anyone would
like to come along! Details attached.

The Royal Borough of Kingston Spring Raceday 16 miles - Sunday 31st March 2019

Pictures available in Photo Gallery

Thought I dedicate this 16 Mile tapering run last Sunday to ELR club. Still on
high after being named CROTM for March 2019.
Even with hardly any sleep due to cold, train connection issues, and being half
an hour late at the start - I still managed to fully enjoy this run and even a
got good pace. Its a flat course, set around Kingston Upon Thames, running
between two bridges in two laps which starts and finishes at the Market Place.
Perfect for an easy tapering run and I highly recommend it, if you don't mind
the Sunday 8am start.
Thanks again ELR for the confidence boost on the weekend. Next stop, Paris Marathon!

Braintree 5m (inc Essex Championships) - Sunday 31st March 2019

Orion 15 - Saturday 30th March 2019

Pictures available in Photo Gallery

357 finishers.
Nat Dye Orion 15 Race Report
After 100k last week, I didnt have high expectations for this race. I shouldnt have worried in that account my legs felt fine. However, the real handicap came in the form of a massive hangover that was the result of being plyed with booze by Ms Bad Influence Maud Hodson until 2am this morning.
Despite all this, I started the race in good spirits with the pressure off and nothing to prove to myself. Rather than a race, this felt like a social run as I chatted my way through the picturesque surroundings of Epping Forest. As I wasnt gunning for a PB or anything, I walked up all the hills. This put me back less than expected and I was able to really go for it on the downhills and the flats. To my surprise, this tactic helped me to pick up places as I went along and I felt pretty fresh at the end. Even more surprising was the course PB. I might have to try this run-walk thing more often!
As Im sure everyone knows, this race is a club favourite. What an enjoyable stroll through the forest!


Caroline Frith: Mini race report - I was definitely apprehensive about Orion 15 this year, not because I doubted my fitness, more to do with doubting my footwear and sense of direction. Having gone wrong twice in the Mercury 10 and spent a lot of that race skating on mud in my Hoka trail shoes, my goals for today were 1) dont get lost, 2) dont fall over in the mud and then if all went amazingly well 3) beat my time from last year.
Well the mud was non existent which suited me down to the ground. My memories from last year of slipping backwards down hills when trying to run up them thankfully remained memories. The sun shone, the forest was looking beautiful covered in blossom and new leaves, my kids were my usual support crew (yes the children at mile 9 trying to flog vegan jelly babies were mine) and Calvin Bobin kept popping up just when the fatigue was setting in. Not forgetting Maya Goodwin and her cow bell and all the wonderful Orion marshals. And the people that laid the trail were obviously keen that no one should get lost today because there was sawdust in abundance! The Hansel and Gretel trail was easy to follow. The icing on the cake was seeing Frank Brownlie at the end. Oh, and I knocked 9 minutes off my time from last year. Given that I dont think Ill ever get a PB in a conventional race again - Ill take that.


Scott McMillan:- Finished the ridiculously hard Orion 15 mile cross
country race in 1:56:11 today. There were insanely steep hills, madcap descents,
stiles, hurdles over logs, jumps over streams, and occasional swamps and bogs.
My aim was to finish in under 2 hours (previous time was 2:01), and to try to
enjoy it, soaking in the incredible views and forest scenery. Comfortably achieved
all of that.
My running in 2019 started with a flat 1500m indoor race, and Ive pushed on to
the most un-flat 15 mile outdoor race, with some nice PBs in between. Going to rest
my running legs for a little bit now, theyve earned it.

Run Through Velopark 5km - Saturday 30th March 2019

Pictures available in Photo Gallery

parkrun - all venues - Saturday 30th March 2019

Morag Campbell reports:_ I did Tilgate Parkrun (Crawley) this morning!
Its in a beautiful setting but fairly tough for us who are used flat runs as
a few hills! Im proud of myself though as ran the whole course (even the hills)
and wanted to thank Grant Conway for the few times I did hill training with
him as it certainly helped with the downhills as I passed quite a few people
going downhill ( and the walkers going up ) and my time was faster than last
week at Wanstead!

Toyota Catch The Car 5km, QEOP - Sunday 24th March 2019

Canalathon 100km - Sunday 24th March 2019

Nat Dye: Canalathon Race Report
So I set off for my first 100k at 7am on a cold, but glorious morning in the quaint little town of Sowerby Bridge, near Halifax. From there, we joined the Rochdale Canal and took a meandering journey along the tow path through beautiful Pennine countryside.
I felt really good for about 30 miles up to Manchester. Then, as I turned round at 50k, two things happened. Firstly, I slowed down dramatically, pretty much suddenly losing over 2 minutes per mile. Secondly, for the first time ever during a run, I felt really sick. The following 10k were amongst the most challenging Ive ever run, and in that include running up and down Ben Nevis. They say you should never try anything new on race day and I guess I just ate a bit too much of the wrong stuff. Thatll learn me. Thankfully, the sickness faded in time.
I wasnt able to recover the pace of the first 50k, so the second 50 were just a case of grinding out mile after gruelling mile. Ultras seem to include a number of peaks and troughs and I somehow felt absolutely brilliant from about 70-80k. I spent the last 50k really wanting to stop running.
Crossing the finish line came as a blessed relief and just as I got under cover, the heavens opened!
The race was small, but very friendly and staffed by amazing volunteers. Apart from being a flat 100k (a rare thing!) I can see why so many people choose to make this their first.
I think I can now call myself a proper ultra runner.

London Landmarks Half Marathon - Sunday 24th March 2019

Run Fest at Lee Valley Half Marathon - Sunday 24th March 2019

Lawrence Foster: Well organised super flat run on a mix of good surfaces.
Would encourage anyone from ELR looking for HM or 10K PB to try their hand here.
Wonderful support from fellow club members both at the meeting and beforehand at
the club runs and track training as always.
Slightly cross with myself for not running a teeny, tiny bit faster, but 3sec
over 100 still makes it a great day.

Run Fest at Lee Valley 10km - Sunday 24th March 2019

Pictures available in Photo Gallery

Colchester Half Marathon - Sunday 24th March 2019

Oakley 20m - Sunday 24th March 2019

Hastings Half Marathon - Sunday 24th March 2019

Gade Valley 20m - Sunday 24th March 2019

Tough Run Half Marathon, Greenwich Park - Saturday 23rd March 2019

parkrun - all venues - Saturday 23rd March 2019

Richard Guest: This morning I did my first park run with Jacob at Highbury Fields
so please can my park run entry show as (first with buggy). Of course I was a bit slower
but it was nice to do it with the young fellow and he seemed to enjoy it.

Robert Rayworth: I have been chasing a dream for the last two years to do a Parkrun (5km)in under 19minutes. I always seemed to be just over and have never managed to do it until today! Hackney Marshes 65th Parkrun 18:37 So pleased to have achieved this result. At times I have been at the point of virtually giving up. However seeing other clubs members achievements is truly inspiring and has motivated me to push myself even harder. It’s great you share your race reports, the highs, the lows, trials and tribulations. Thanks to you all for helping me achieve this result!

Endurance Life Sussex, Half Marathon, Eastbourne - Sunday 17th March 2019

Fun in the wind. Great half marathon on some awesome terrain in slightly less awesome weather! And beers, obvs.

Lisbon Half Marathon - Sunday 17th March 2019

10,600 finishers.

Grant Conway: Flew out. Went for a short reconnaissance run. Sampled
the local bars until 1am. Got woken up by a fire alarm at 7am. Did a tour of
Lisbon and went to the expo. Ate and drank loads more. Ran a HM and now
back out eating and drinking again. Return to UK tomorrow.

Brentwood Half Marathon - Sunday 17th March 2019

Maud Hodson Mini race report:
This was such a different story from the Essex 20 two weeks ago - in Rochford
I'd had to dig so deep to squeak a narrow PB. Today it was never really in doubt
- the weather was so much better, and the hills not as tough as I was expecting.
I did what I would always advise against - after the first few miles I decided
it was going well enough to throw the race plan out of the window and go for more.
Still couldn't believe it when I crossed the line under 1.45 -
I really didn't think that was on. Bring on Manchester.

Reading Half Marathon - Sunday 17th March 2019

Antonio reports: Last test before the Manchester Marathon today in Reading.
I wasn't expecting to get a PB today, firstly because the course has several inclines
and twisted turns and secondly because of the high mileage and workouts I have doing
this week and in the previous one.
The wind seemed fine at the beginning of the race, but in some areas I was struggling
to run fast as I was running most of time on my own, overtaking runners, and the wind
slowed me down from mile 7 to 9, and then I managed to do the last 5k in around 16:25
to finish with a time of 1h11'34". Three weeks to go!

Milton Keynes 20m - Sunday 17th March 2019

789 finishers

Milton Keynes Half Marathon - Sunday 17th March 2019

1177 finishers.

Oundle 20m - Sunday 17th March 2019

299 finishers.

Fleet Pre London Half Marathon - Sunday 17th March 2019

2696 finishers.

Victoria Park 10km - Sunday 17th March 2019

Victoria Park is the new Ilford, which is the new Reading, which is the new Brentwood which is the new Lisbon. by Maya
I have been meaning to do one of the Victoria Park races for aaages. Close by, low key, cheap to enter. I made a decision a few weeks ago that this year was the year Id actually get faster instead of slower. I then proceeded to not run very much. Hmm. Now Im no statistician, but even I know that to get better at running, well, you have to run!
So on Monday I googled 10ks for this weekend, and entered. Getting off at Mile End this morning I was pleased to see other runners that I followed to the start. I had my usual worry when I looked at everybody else that I would be last, but then I remembered - there was a half as well as a 10k! Hurray, so as long as I took less than 2:20 to run 10k, Id be fine
Now, what to wear. Typically for me, I’d based my clothing decision on what it looked like out of my window. My centrally heated window. I ditched the long sleeves for a vest and a hoodie. I was FROZE. Anyway. I left the hoodie at bag drop and hoped for the best. A lovely lady from Orion gave me my number with a grin, asking me if I was the only ELR.
And off we went. My aim for today was not to walk, keep steadily at 11 min miles, and to set a benchmark to improve on. Three flat laps, with 10kers and Half-ers all going round. I overtook some, got overtaken by more, and kept my eyes peeled for any ELR on a training run. Considering my current parkrun time is 32mins, I was pleased with 33m at 5k. At 9.5k I saw the lady from Orion marshalling. Come on give me an ELR a strong finish, do your club proud! That really gave me the good cheer to push that last 200m. Garmin says 1:06:08. Less than 11m miles, Im happy. If I can get to 1:02 by Christmas Ill be delighted. Bring on ELVIS. And remember:
It doesnt say East London Walkers on your vest Maya

Essex Road Relays, Harwich - Saturday 16th March 2019

Pictures available in Photo Gallery

Mens Open Relay East London Runners 9th of 32 in 1.10.29

Individual times - 393 runners
Euan 10th
Billy 88th
Patrick 56th
Jose 48th

Patrick: Cheers Don! It was tough condition in the wind today and a long drive but good to be representing ELR

parkrun - all venues - Saturday 16th March 2019

Shahib Ali : Finally joined the 100 parkrun club. Having done my first parkrun
on 18.1.14, didn’t do my 50th until 24.3.18, but 50-100 took less than a year and took
in a variety of different parkruns.
Number of different parkruns: 32
Number of position 1: 2
Home parkrun: Barking
Most picturesque: Kingston
Most welcoming tourist spot: Osterley
Most arduous: Lloyd
Funniest briefing: Wimbledon Common
Scariest briefing: Brockwell (talk of dogs dying)
Most planning needed: Bedfont Lakes (landed at Heathrow 0700 from Bangladesh, run at 090)
Left barcode at home: Mile End (so today ought to have been 101st parkrun)
Lost on course: Beckton
Most magical parkrun: Bushy
Memorable parkrun: Barking 19.8.17 - P1
Child friendliest parkrun: Peckham Rye
Most congested: Tooting Bec, 3rd lap
Favourite location: South and West London
Most varied courses: South London
Club records: 6
Buggy parkruns: 14
Moment of madness: Samia in active labour with younger child, close to attending Mile End parkrun.
Volunteering: 0 - definitely needs to change ASAP.

Run Through Chase The Moon 10km, QEOP - Wednesday 13th March 2019

Run Through Chase The Moon 5km, QEOP - Wednesday 13th March 2019

Cooper Test at the track - Monday 11th March 2019

Dear all. Well done to everyone who came along to track last night. We did a session of 4x400 metres followed by a Cooper test which is a 12 minute run without stopping to see how far we can go. I have the following results although I don’t have all those who were there. Please let me know if you would like yours added.
I propose that we do another Cooper Test in the summer to see if we have got any faster.
Thanks
Grant.
Maya 2100
Emma Hammerstein 2000
Mary Lloyd 2600
Becky Clark 2700
Jo Wood 2200
Maud 2800
Marc 2600
Jonno 2600
Nicola hedges 2000
Ivan 2930
Loaura Kemp 2900
Monier Darby 2900
Gareth 2800
Jim 3200
James Creed 3100
Lisa 1900
Ned 3000
Helen Madden 2100
Sarah Pascal 1800
Trish 2400
Susannah M 2350
Jed 2800
Lance 2600
Bolts 3500
Fiona 2500
Sarah S 1900
Josh 2400

Chester 10km - Sunday 10th March 2019

Hillingdon 20 - Sunday 10th March 2019

Pictures available in Photo Gallery

Retford Half Marathon - Sunday 10th March 2019

Arthur Diaz: RETFORD Half Marathon done and new PB too.
Definitely worth the train trip from London. Felt steady and
stronger throughout the race even with the light rain, wind
and 4 degree temp.

The Big Half - Sunday 10th March 2019

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Samia Choudhury:_ This is my first half marathon in 18 months. Took a tiny break because I had a tiny human.
So the night before Shahib decided we had to leave my mums house at 6am to get to London Bridge with enough time for loos and baggage drop. So I woke up and got ready for 6am, but Shahib of course was still not ready until 6:20! Anywho, we get to the start and just before we split he says “remember start off slow and pace yourself”. And then once I got rid of my extra clothes I see Jonathan! He walked with me towards the start line and I told him Id like a sub 2:35. He wished me luck and off I went. I didnt start off fast at all as I was still defrosting from the cold but slowly got comfortable. By half way I was fine and then saw ELR! That gave me a boost. As I got to 10 miles I thought I should increase my pace a little and see if I could get a sub 2:30. But by 12 miles I knew I wouldnt be able to make up the time. A little disheartened I saw that I could possibly get the sub 2:35 if I sprinted the last 300m. Sprinted I did! I felt like a gazelle but probably looked like a snail. I didnt care though as I had crossed the finish line strong at 02:34:18 😃 I managed to knock off 10 minutes from 2 years ago!


Aaron Browne:- Big half done in 1:22. Not my quickest time but am happy with where
that means I am fitness wise right now with 5 weeks to go until Brighton. The quest for
sub 80 continues. Really nice to see various ELR out on the course and beforehand and nice
to see, Andy too. Well done to Roisin on her shiny new PB. Thoroughly deserved after all
the hard work and dedication. Super proud of you as always x


Jessica Trayler-Moore:- This race report has a happy ending - but for a good few hours, todays run felt pretty doomed.
Recently, long days at work meant training fell by the wayside. Then came Vitalitys weather warning. As I left home into the drizzle at 6.45 this morning, my eldest muttered “Why are you even doing this?”. I laughed, threw a bottle of water in my bag, and set off to meet ELR at Stratford. Ten minutes later, standing on a packed, delayed tube, I noticed the bottle had leaked, soaking the dry clothes Id packed to change into after the run. Nice one.
I arrived at Stratford already feeling defeated and deflated - but you know ELR, right? So damn cheerful. By the time the Orange group arrived at London Bridge, we were quite sure that, actually, drizzle and wind is far preferable to hot sun. In fact, these were almost the perfect running conditions.
I made a plan. With an hour alone in the starting pen, I had oodles of time to warm up, and scope a pacer. I optimistically stood behind Mr Two Hours, thinking Id see how long I could keep him in my sights.
Unfortunately, the Big Half starts with a metaphor of doom; the route almost immediately leads you underground through a dark and seemingly never-ending tunnel. In shades if, like me, you followed the organisers advice to protect your eyes from the wind and rain. The whole thing felt like a gloomy mistake, and my eldests words were ringing in my ears as I finally pushed up the incline at the end of the tunnel.
Or not? Contrary to the weather warning, I emerged to blue skies and sunshine. Then I heard myself scream Go, Mo! as Mo Farah flew past me in the opposite direction. David Weir wasnt far behind. And I still had my pacer in clear view.
I carried on pretty cheerfully until we hit a wind tunnel around Canary Wharf, followed by some uneven clobbled streets a mile or so later. They felt unstable. Hard work. And around mile 6, I lost my pacer.
If any volunteers ever doubt the value of getting up at the crack of dawn to support their club-mates, you need to know what a massive difference seeing the ELR crew made to my race. Like with Mo, I heard myself shout Maya Goodwin! before I even registered Id seen her. Volunteers, thank you all so much for braving the elements to cheer us on - your waves and smiles buoyed me up for the next couple of miles, and I flew comfortably through to mile 9.
Then my knee started to play up. Around mile 10, a guy whod been running confidently ahead of me suddenly stopped in his tracks. He looked defeated. You can do it, I told him. He shook his head no. Yes yes!, I said. Just get your breath, youve got this. Two minutes later, hed caught me up, saying he was going to stay with me until the end. Limping now and knowing Id have to walk-run to the finish line, I asked him not to, but he was having none of it. And he seemed to know everyone. Trevor was running to raise money for Uganda, where hes from. Spectators were shouting his name (which wasnt on his vest), and many called out in what I assume was Ugandan.
When Trevor and I - and now his mate too - hit 13 miles, we grabbed each others hands and limp-sprinted across the finish line. High-fiving in the rain with medals round our necks, I knew what Id tell my daughter when I got home. This is why we even do this.
It wasnt a pb, but at 2h 10m 38s, it wasnt far off - and given the conditions, lack of training, and my mood at the start, Im pretty chuffed.


Jose reports:- Big Half report: after being battling some problems with my hip and my shins I can not relaxed with the idea of getting a PB today. I've been having some good training despite the injury but my overall millage dropped to a minimum and I haven some speed work for several weeks. Also I decided to support my club for the Chingford League relays yesterday. Not ideal before a Half marathon but It was just 2M (3,22 km) of cross country, and we won!. This am we woke up early and me and my husband (that was also running)had so separate to go to our bag drop areas, then I tried to do some warm up but you have to be inside the wave area 20 Min before...so I end up doing less then 1 km. Very cold and windy...race starts at 9... my legs they feel thigh and It actually takes me quiet a long time to feel Im properly in the race as my body is not warm enough...I guess everyone was feeling similar. For 3 or 4 times I nearly end up on the floor due to very strong winds coming from the sides all of the sudden. I hate hate and hate running with wind.. dont mind too much the rain but wind no please... I just want to enjoy, as much as I can on those circumstances , the race at that time. I think my GPS got wind-crazy between km 5-6 for a min... crossing the Tower bridge is always a bit special...and Im starting to feel better on the second half. They're some runners around me running at a similar pace and manage to do some km in company. I also thought it will protect me a bit from the wind but I was wrong. The was coming from any direction and changing constantly...just annoying. I manage to have a decent and constant pace on the second half and to my surprise I manage to do a PB!, Just around 25 seconds but PB anyway!..so I'm very happy with that!

The Big Half Volunteers - The Pinks - Sunday 10th March 2019

also Lillie Bamford

Chingford League Relays - Saturday 9th March 2019

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1st team East London Runners 43.50 (Euan, Jose, Pat & Thomas)
2nd ELR TEAM 28th of 51 60.15
3rd ELR TEAM 31st of 51 61.13
4th ELR TEAM 37th of 51 66.38

Vets teams

Vet Women 5th of 6 (Becky, lexandra, Tricia and Diana) 1.08.28

Vet Men 6th of 8 (Robert, Terry, Peter & Warren 57.16

Chingford League Relays - Volunteers - Saturday 9th March 2019

Julie Brown & family - Supporting
Paula & Sarah's Mum & family - Cakes & Teas.
Pam Bennett - Baker & cake stall
Marco - Volunteer

Run Through Victoria Park Half Marathon - Saturday 9th March 2019

Run Through Victoria Park 10km - Saturday 9th March 2019

parkrun - all venues - Saturday 9th March 2019

Shahib Ali lands at Heathrow at 07.00am and at Bedfont Lakes parkrun at 09.00am.

Mornington Chasers Regents Park 10km - Sunday 3rd March 2019

Essex 20m Road Race (inc Essex 20m Championship) - Sunday 3rd March 2019

Antonio reports:- After very high mileage in February, today was the first test leading up to the Manchester Marathon. My legs were tired, as the sessions have been brutal in the last weeks, but the main target to run this race was to do a decent workout with a lot of acid lactic in my legs, and try some strategies as well as develop some mental strength, especially useful for the last miles of a marathon.
The race started and I had two options, run in the lead group at a suicidal pace or stay in a second one at a comfortable one. I chose the second option, specially because of the strong headwind, so I stuck at the back of the group trying not to spend too much energy and after the fist lap, most of the runners dropped off the pace and just three of us continued in the group. There were some surges from the other two runners, but I managed to stay with them, then at mile 10th I put another year just before the hill and one of them couldn't follow us. We went to the beginning of the last lap together but I felt I had still some petrol in the tank and changed the pace, started running on my own and caught more runners. Then, I went up the hill and saw the mile 18th, I was feeling so well and kept pushing to the finish line. In the end, 20 miles in 1h52'52" at 5:38/mile pace (3:30/km)
Very happy with the strategy, my legs and how the training is going. The marathon course is far easier, and hopefully, the conditions will be better. Still five weeks to go, so I have to keep working hard before starting the tapering.


Maud reports:- Essex 20 - brief race report...
Four years ago at this race I took 13 minutes off my PB. Today it was 35 seconds, but in some ways Im more pleased with this one.
Ive been running some decent times at shorter stuff recently, so I decided a PB attempt was on, even though I've been feeling quite tired and run down. And I'd heard that this year's course in Rochford was flatter than the old one in Langham.
Well, it wasn't. There was more than twice the elevation - two hills on each of the three laps. And while the rain mostly held off the wind was brutal. But I was going along OK.
The first, longer, hill on lap three almost broke me. The wind was in my face and my place plummeted. I decided it was all over - I'd taken a risk and it hadn't paid off. I started writing a (different) race report in my head. I would have a little breather at the last water station, then walk up the final hill.
But I kept running. Even with one mile to go the fat lady was resolutely staying in her dressing room. That mile was flat, but into the wind again, but it was the last one.
Bring on Manchester.