Earlier on in the year Tony Cross posted on the Harriers Facebook page about getting a team together for the Hull Marathon relays, myself, Lee Alcock & Chris Monk answered the call & team Hull City Harriers were created. Tony kindly sorted the entries out & we were good to go on the 18th September. With all four of us been around the same pace we set our target time of 2 hours 50 minutes which we all thought was pretty achievable. In the build-up we had all been training hard apart from TC who had his late summer hibernation. From a personal point of view having not raced since early August I was keen to make up for my disappointing run at York 10k, my Parkrun times had been gradually coming down so I was feeling confident about my leg of the Marathon.

Race day arrived & I woke up early feeling even more nervous than a normal race probably because I didn’t want to let my team down, I made my way to the queens gardens for the Harriers meet up & was amazed by how many people from the club were running whether it be individual, 2 person or 4 person, the club goes from strength to strength & exciting times are ahead, we had the usual pre race team photo & then made our way to the start line for the 9am go time. For our team we had Tony on the first leg then Lee & Chris & me on the anchor leg. City of Hull had put out a strong mens team & with White City men & City of Hull ladies also putting out good teams a great battle was expected. After seeing TC off I pottered about around town for a bit before welcoming him back in to the city centre, he produced a quality first leg coming through in second place a minute or so behind by City of Hull men & a good lead over third place, TC handed over to Lee who had the 7.3 mile leg up to the Humber bridge, Lee had been struggling with his foot again after our jaunt around Brantingham the week before but pulled off a blinding leg to cement our second place. Lee handed over to Chris for three leg, now Chris will say he was volunteered for the long leg over the bridge & back but my recollection was he demanded he did it…

By this time I was in position near Sirius academy awaiting Chris’ arrival, Kris Lecher from CoH produced an outstanding leg running the 7.6 miles in just over 40 minutes, at this point I knew first place was gone but second place was still on the cards. I don’t think I have ever felt so nervous waiting around to run i had to ask for water as dry mouth had set in, as soon as I saw Chris turn down Pickering road the nerves disappeared & it was showtime, again Chris ran an amazing leg & we were still in second place he handed me the wristband & I was off….in the first mile or so I passed three runners in the main race & with only 6 runners in front of me I knew it was going to be a lonely leg, it was great to see Nippy about halfway through my bit & also a friend from work near the marina to give me that boost I needed, as I made my way towards old town I knew second place was in the bag & seeing the crowds line the streets lifted me to a fast finish. I saw TC near the Guildhall & he said we were on for that sub 2.50 we wanted, the crowds in the finish area were amazing it was a great buzz something I’ll remember for a long time, I crossed the line in 2:49.06 (chip time 2:49.04) & I thought job well done by our team.

Congrats to City of Hull men’s team on winning the relays & also great competition from White City men in third place & also the two CoH ladies teams. Also well done to Stu Buchanan & Keith Conkerton for the winning the men’s pairs & Sara Rookyard & Chris Sumpton winning the the mixed pairs. As for the main race there are far too many to mention but just want to pick out a few. Rob Weekes third place in an awesome time of 2:44.59, Richie Buckle with a 9 minute PB for 2:47.12 in 5th place, Heidi Akester running her first marathon in a great time of 4:23.56. I was so gutted Kirsty Wilson had to pull out around 6 miles due to a calf injury, she had put so much hard work in training & had been mentioned so much in the build up I have no doubts she’ll be back as she’s one tough cookie & lastly but by no means least my good friend & gruesome twosome partner Danny Wilson I’m a heart on the sleeve guy & it was very emotional to see him been helped over the line as soon as he had finished I jumped over the barriers to offer any help that I could, in the end I was chief wafter with a hull daily mail to cool him down. With all said Danny produced a cracking time of 3:06.03.

Afterwards we all got drunk in Three John Scott’s & i had a bad hangover at work the following day, the 2016 RB Hull Marathon was a great event & congratulations to everyone that ran it.

Mike Petersen