The third Chester Marathon attracted a field of almost 3000 runners last Sunday, among them three members of Beverley Athletic Club.
The first of the Beverley trio to finish was Jody Horth. Running in his sixth marathon he was delighted to record a new personal best time of 3:36:02, beating his previous best by 13 minutes.
He said:
“I was very pleased with my time as work commitments over the summer had not left me as much time to train as I would have liked.”
This was his second marathon this year and he was still benefitting from the training he put in for the Hull Marathon in April when he was disappointed that his time was invalidated as the course was short of the full marathon distance.
His target is to run the marathon in less than 3 hours 30 minutes and he has made a lot of progress towards that.
Next across the finishing line for Beverley was Julie Donald in 3:41:52. This was her fourth marathon this year and her second in five weeks.
On 2 September she ran the Moray Marathon in Scotland and finished in 3:42:16. Between the marathons she completed the Yorkshire 3 Peaks Challenge in 12 hours, took part in a 90 mile charity event and was a member of the Beverley AC ladies’ team at the Northern Road Relays. She commented: “Finishing Chester marathon was a massive relief – with very tired legs 26.2 miles is a long way!”
Paul Evans was the last of the trio to cross the finishing line, completing the course in 4:48:42.
The race started and finished at Chester racecourse where the going was soft and then proceeded along cobbled streets in the historic city passing the town hall, cathedral, Eastgate clock and Roman amphitheatre before heading out into the Cheshire countryside.
The rural part of the course was very scenic and mainly flat and passed through some idyllic villages where crowds of locals turned out to cheer on the runners and give them sweets.
The route crossed into Wales for a seven-mile section and then headed back to Chester alongside the River Dee. The finishing line was opposite the grandstand at the racecourse where hundreds of spectators cheered the runners home.
Commenting on the marathon Jody Horth said: “The support in the many villages en route was the best I’ve ever seen at a marathon outside London, and the event was superbly organised.”
The race was won by Ray Ward of Hunters Bog Trotters in 2:28:46. The first lady was Mel Frazier of Gravesend Road Runners in 2:51:46.
