A 27 strong team of Ivanhoe Runners travelled to the Canary Islands this weekend to take part in the Lanzarote full and half marathons only to be met by freak weather conditions which saw 50 mile per hour winds and heavy showers of rain. Sadly the awful conditions saw the cancellation of all races for the safety of runners and brought great travel disruption.  Only one flight was able to land on the island on Friday and three club members had flights diverted to Fuerteventura and then Gran Canaria before joining the rest of the team 24 hours late.  Never to be defeated by the conditions however, the team battled through the weather and ran their own training runs, most members managing 10k despite gusts of wind that threatened to blow them into the sea and torrential downfalls at times. Six runners even managed to run the half marathon distance of 13.1 miles, a great achievement in the circumstances! Furthermore the club made the most of the trip by celebrating their long and successful season by partying into the early hours. The organisers of the Lanzarote marathon praised the team with the words “thanks for being so much fun and so positive even with the bad news of the Marathon being cancelled” and some members are determined to return next year to complete their unfinished business with the race. Thanks go to Nick Teige, Special Events secretary who inspired and organised the trip. Ivanhoe Runners Lanzarote tour 2014: Karen Bell, James Cox, Maureen Danvers, Chris and Kelly Finney, Laura and Pete Graves, Jason and Ruth Green, Andy and Sally Jeyes, Andy Lindley, Andy Pole, Linda Revill, Kev and Judith Sanders, Gabby and Pippa Smith, Victoria Smith, Heather and Michael Swan, Nick Teige, Angela and Rob Wheeler, Bob White, Kev Wright, Martin Yeomans.

Written by Ruth Green - last updated by Andy Lindley on 09/12/2014