I dropped one Berlin participant into a midweek write up, sandwiching Andy in the Chicago exclusive, but he wasn’t the only Ivanhoe strutting his stuff on the German streets. He was joined by the fabulous Finn’s too. You may remember Helen collected her six star medal when she completed the Boston marathon earlier this year, well it looks like she’s got round two well and truly underway. Helen ran a superb 4:37:30 in her third major marathon, of the year. How truly impressive. Husband on the yellow team, John, also ran a great event, and completed the marathon in a swift 3:21:10.

It really does seems one marathon a year isn’t enough for some members, and let me tell you, one is special, never mind multiple, and it was Richard Bebbington who followed up London in April with Eden this October. He was running in aid of Wishes for Kids, and knocked 15 minutes off his run from when he did this in 2022. Just two weeks of rest between this 26.2 and his next in Snowdonia. Great job Rich!

Teresa Talbott was flying solo at the Yorkshire Coast 10K last weekend, organised by Scarborough AC. I spotted our T list three wonderful positives from the event on her Strava; 1/ that it was a beautiful day, 2/ that she can still run 10K (we were never in any doubt), and 3/ that she can run an even paced race, and let me tell you, the splits make for a very pretty graph. Well done Teresa.

The Dave Denton races are back for round two of the season, and I certainly looked out of my window on Wednesday events and felt sorry for the poor souls that had committed themselves to the rain. The mile is always off first, and it was George Giles leading the charge for Ivanhoe in 5:32 for second place. Ian Bolton was next and 8th place in 6:18, Amelia Monaghan ran a rapid 6:41, Louis Barnes just one second behind, Matt Pleass had a cruisey (for him) 7:12, and then dream team Ellen Bolton, Lindsay Tilbury and Paul Woods came in a 8:41, 51, 51.

In the 5K (two repeats of the mile route with a middle section along the opposite stretch), Matt put his foot down and recorded 17:46, a tasty seasons best that’s within touching distance of his all time PB. Louis is making the series his mission and set out to beat last month’s 21:02, and in the less favourable conditions knocked off a solid 14 seconds. George set out to pace Amelia but comically they lost contact in the last km where he found himself supporting a stranger instead much thanks to the rain. He finished in 20:53, Ian then came along between then in 20:58, and Amelia chased them both in to a phenomenal 46 second PB stopping the clock on exactly 21 minutes.

Paul also signed himself up for pacing duties, with Lindsay on the hunt for a new best time. She arrived at the funnel to an 11 second PB for 24:20, Paul just ahead in 24:14. And for Ellen, a huge road 5K PB taking 2 minutes 44 off her time last month in 28:35. A massive improvement and on a night with kinder weather, you know for sure that can be destroyed further.

Written by Emily Partridge - last updated on 21/10/2023