Following 4 months of solid training with a few niggles/scares here and there the day finally arrived. Having decided to stay in Manchester the precious night, preparation was as relaxed as could be. All mattered now was arriving on the start line…

However when you need to go, you need go! I left the cubicle at 08:57 for a 09:00 start, ran straight to the wrong pen, panicked, jumped two fences, eventually found the back end of what I think was the correct pen and crossed the start line at approximately 09:05. I knew this wouldn’t damage my chip time but couldn’t help but feel I was playing catch up with the rest of the field.

After almost a mile in and with the feeling still dominating my thoughts, I decided to go all in and see what I had in the tank. Dangerous considering I don’t use a watch, meaning my pace could easily have become too fast – at times, probably did. Thankfully I was able to tag on to a number of runners who appeared to be in a similar boat. My target now moved from ‘run cautiously and make sure you get my Good for Age time’ to ‘throw caution to the wind and go for sub 2:50:00’… I did this during the same race last year… and f****d it right up!  

As I moved through the miles I felt really good and this was helped with regular shouts of encouragement from the ever present EHH support crew and shouts of support between EHH runners. As the route turns back on itself – approximately half way – I saw the front runners Inc. Rob and Mikey – both smashing it. I took a good deal of inspiration from both as I dug in to maintain the quick pace I started with. I managed to do so up to mile 23 where the legs started to feel heavy and this continued through mile 24 and 25 – pace dropping easily over an extra minute per mile! During this time Richie passed and with a big shout of “COME ON DEYESEY!” he also told me we were on for a time of approximately 2:50:00.

Now knowing I had my Good for Age in the bag I managed to pick the pace up and felt like I flew down the final straight… A Deyes senior told me otherwise – I think tired and heavy were the words used. 02:50:04 was the time when I crossed the line… 02:45:37 my official chip time. OVER THE MOON and a 25 minute PB from last year’s effort on the same course.

Upon finishing we all gathered outside the cricket ground and I was told my splits where very similar to The Captains – “we could have ran together you dick head” were his words… yeah I agree, I messed a trick there! Although I was 4-5 minutes behind him as Matty started on time, our two times were a mere 12 seconds apart… in favour of The Captain who arrived in a time of 02:45:25. Bravo! Note to self: plan your toilet trips!

The EHH turnout for the race was massive! As was the support (cheers Mum and Dad ☺), it’s a joy to wear the Red Vest – What a Club!!

Some other results to note:

Michael Hargreaves – 02:26:53 and Robert Weekes – 02:27:11, ace running guys setting the standard for the rest of us! Awesome!

Mark (Lethal) Bissel – strong as always smashed it with 02:46:54.

Richie Buckle – 02:49:21 great effort

Paul Teece came home ‘PB style’ in a time of 02:50:43.

Tony Cross – securing London with an excellently paced sub 3 hour marathon – 02:59:08

Shaun Alcock narrowly missed his Good for Age with a time of 03:00:08. Fantastic effort and result for your first marathon! Well played.

Well done everyone else you took part recording awesome results also!