As well as the marathon hype, there was plenty of action elsewhere last weekend. We’ll start close to home, where for the first time, Lichfield Running Club adopted a well-established event to form part of the Burton & District Summer League. The league takes in a variety of races throughout the spring and summer, and the Cathedral to Castle 10 mile fixture on the race calendar kicked us off for 2022.

Five Ivanhoes pulled on the club colours for the point to point event taking them from Lichfield cathedral to Tamworth castle. Damon Bland was first for Ivanhoe to cross the line in a brilliant time of 1:14:50 despite forgetting his watch on the morning. Next up was Mark Bradford in 1:15:23, followed by James Ogilvie in 1:18:02 for an impressive 17 minute personal best. Flying the flag for the girls was Andrea Trickett in 1:21:29 who completed her day of training with 30km in the saddle once she returned home. Completing the quintet was Martin Yeomans in 1:23:01.

Sophie Cooper continued her build towards Edinburgh marathon at the Loughborough half, a challenging course organised by the charity Living Without Abuse. She finished as 13th female in 1:48:23, joined by Jill Singleton and Faye Burrows. They described it as a very hilly route and were unsure if they’d be giving it a second go but did a fabulous job finishing in 2:11:09 and 2:38:20 respectively.

Sonia and Mark Hoult headed down to the capital for the London Landmarks half. Sonia not only did a fabulous job out on the 13.1 mile course, but off the course she raised an exceptional £500+ for Alzheimers, a charity very close to her heart. Head to Sonia’s facebook for her Just Giving page if you’d like to make a donation, especially given her and Mark’s superb time of 2:22:56.

Andy Cole headed for warmer climates and sought out the Madrid half marathon, a “great city, good race and sunny skies”. Andy completed the run in a superb 1:42:08.

Written by Emily Partridge - last updated on 07/12/2022