In September, we had members take part in iconic 13.1 mile events at both ends of England.

The Big Half is quite a big half, attracting 15,000 runners to the spectacle down in the capital, which also doubled as a qualifying event of the 2023 World Athletics Road Running Championships Half Marathon in Latvia which was staged the first of October. Our England ladies shone on the streets of Riga taking team bronze with speedy times from Calli Thackery, Samantha Harrison and Clara Evans.

Our own stars shone bright on the morning of the large half marathon in London, with none other than regular racer Laura Graves showcasing an incredible performance of 1:46:52 for 3rd in her category, an amazing sixth Diamond standard added to her amazing season of results. She was joined by Chris Osborne 1:48:10 and Nancy Bennion 1:56:24, all recording fabulous times as part of their Chester marathon training.

Also out on course was Mindy Ashton running 1:51:03, Carolyn Osborne 2:02:31, Lisa Hall 2:02;55, Simon Hall 2:10:10 and Kenny Ashton scoring his second ever half marathon running 3:21:04.

A week later in the great north, the Great North Run landed itself on a September heatwave weekend, and for an exposed course and an 11am start, it made for grueling conditions. That however didn’t matter for our trooper Georgie Smith, who was on a mission for her first sub 1:45 half marathon. Warm weather clearly suits the speedster though, who ran a whopping 6 minute+ personal best to rally home in 1:42:30.

Plenty more Ivanhoe made to trip to Newcastle, and it took all of them less time to run the event than it did to even move half a mile out of South Shields, after, would you believe it, a biblical storm lead to many flooded roads.

Mark Parker was first back in 1:21:54, Alastair Chambers ran 1:29:15, Emily Partridge crossed the line after 1:43:45, having all ran the course many times previously. Pat Horn ran the famous route for the first time in 1:45:49, Clare Wood was chuffed to be back in her home region and 1:51:11, Paul Averillo did amazing off the back of illness running 2:05:11 and Mukesh Deva is on an inspiring comeback running 2:26:18.

Written by Emily Partridge - last updated on 09/10/2023