It was marathon weekend for Ivanhoe Runners as the Club saw members take part in both the Nottingham Robin Hood Marathon and the Berlin Marathon.

Closest to home, five Ivanhoe Runners did the Robin Hood Marathon with eleven doing the accompanying half marathon. In the marathon, Dave Hobbs was first home for Ivanhoe in 3.27.31, just a couple of minutes ahead of Ian Kirk who, despite this being his third marathon or longer race in three weeks ran an impressive 3.29.14. Tim Sturla has also been notching up multiple marathons and added Nottingham to the tally as he finished in 3.48.54.

Andy Lindley and Karen Hartland ran together but both found it tough from early on, but nevertheless clocked a respectable 4.20.38.

Over in Berlin, the club's female marathon record holder, Clare Fowell, enjoyed the Berlin experience despite the heat. Off limited training she ran an impressive 3.27.17 to clock yet another sub 3.30 marathon. Matt Joyce also found it warm but still ran a solid 3.47.21.

In the Robin Hood half marathon, Craig Hinds ran his longest race for some time and blazed round in  pleasing 1.25.45. Richard Martin may well have scraped a new personal best as he clocked 1.26.25, and Matt Brocklehurst also cracked 1.30 as he clocked 1.29.18. James Cox had a great run to set a new personal best, 1.31.52, knocking over 3 minutes off his previous best. Patrick Horn was next home in 1.42.27, followed by Karen Bell 1.48.09. Tracey Powell had a strong run which again may be a personal best, clocking a very strong 1.51.17. Martin Yeomans had been toying with running the marathon, but with the heat, limited training and sore leg he sensibly cruised a 1.51.58 half instead. David Walker set new goals as he ran his longest even run to finish well in 1.53.00, a great run.

Sarah Malone ran 2.04.27, followed by Grania Towle 2.14.12 and Sam Toon in 2.22.02, Sam running her first half marathon in Ivanhoe colours.

In the Bristol half marathon, Ruth Cousin was disappointed with her 2.00.47 clocking.

On Saturday Ivanhoe Runners staged a "takeover" at the Conkers parkrun, providing 40 volunteers to cover marshalling, time keeping and all the other organisation positions. 387 runners completed the 5k and were also encouraged to sign up for cardio pulmonary resuscitation (CPR) and automated external defibrillator (AED) training being promoted by Heartwize Runners. This is a new organisation, whose objective to is give free CPR and AED training to runners and the wider community, to increase individuals chances of surviving a cardiac arrest by receiving immediate bystander assistance.

Written by Kevin Sanders - last updated on 30/09/2016