It was a very busy weekend for Ivanhoe Runners as the road marathon season kicked off with the Manchester marathon. With the London marathon increasingly difficult to get entry into, Manchester has become the popular choice for many and a huge contingent of seventeen Ivanhoe Runners ran the 2017 version.

At the front end, Richard Martin ran a storming time of 2.59.41 and would have been gutted to have missed out on a personal best by a mere 4 seconds! Behind him, Clare Fowell will have been delighted with a time of 3.18.11. Whilst not a personal best, Clare was 10th in her age group and an excellent 60th lady overall. Andy Lindley is on a marathon odyssey with plans for London and Liverpool marathons after Manchester, and was happy with his time of 3.29.39.

Richard Bebbington ran 3.41.40 and led home a group of seven runners clocking under 3.50, including Damon Bland who was delighted with his time of 3.43.38 which was a personal best by over 13 minutes. Behind Damon, Karen Bell clocked 3.46.16 to get under 4 hours again after some injury filled years, and she was just ahead of a trio finishing together, Ian Kirk clocking 3.47.05 and training partners Kevin Brown and Martin Rowse running together for 3.48.45. This was a big personal best for Kevin and a marathon debut for Martin, and both were very pleased with their weekend's work. Completing the sub-3.50 group was Karen Hartland, another Ivanhoe Runner ecstatic to shave a new personal best of 3.49.27.

Jason Green battled injury to get to the start and was satisfied with a sub 4 hour time of 3.58.43. Ladies club captain Victoria Smith was another delighted with a new personal best, clocking 4.00.48 to nock over 5 minutes off her previous time of 4.06. Dave and Becca Hobbs ran together in Becca's first marathon post-motherhood, and they clocked 4.02.12 and 4.02.13 respectively. Teresa Talbott smashed her previous best by over 10 minutes as she recorded 4.09.49, ahead of debutante Helen Horn who clocked a fine 4.18.21. Finally a very happy Ange Bebbington came in at 4.56.30 to knock five minutes off her previous best, a fitting finale to a great day for Ivanhoe Runners. Three runners also took part in the relay marathon, with Peter Graves, Amanda Bradbury and Laura Graves running the legs.

Written by Kevin Sanders - last updated on 07/04/2017