It has been a grimly curtailed year for racing runners thus far with, for almost the whole planet, very limited further options for several months (New Zealand runners can look away now).
Basically, mid March to end August was a blank page for races across the UK with early September marking a very cautious return to smaller races with social distancing , runners in small waves, and no spectators. The whole accreditation and permit process in the current situation means races can pop up at very short notice,and similarly be cancelled very late. So all difficult, compounded by the uncertainty many runners face in their wider lives.
All that said, there have been some excellent speedy results and breakthroughs by runcoach1to1.com coachees this autumn.
At the Bedford Marathon on 18 October Paul Piper placed 2nd in 2.24.26 just seconds from his PB set in the Valencia dream race. He was followed by Martin Green in 2.28,10, a big advance and outstanding performance at age 46. Indeed he leads the UK V45 Marathon rankings for the year.
Two weeks prior Jess Welborn placed 2nd woman at Dorney with a very strong 2.51.31 which slashed 21 minutes off her PB. In the same race Sophie Raworth, at 52, defied recent scaled back training,to clock 3.29 in her virtual London marathon. 61 year old Fulham clubmate Bob E did a strong 3.33 in the same race.
Further west on the Welsh borders, Hallam G knocked chunks off his bests with 35.01 and 16.45. Back in London, Cara P took her 10k PB down to 40.36 at Olympic park. Whilst 20-something Serpies George and Isaac took down their 10k PBs to 33.27 and 34.48 respectively. Overseas, Anglo-Dane Paul Roome marked his 47th birthday with a swift 54.40 for 15k, followed up with a splendid 5k PB of 16.33, aftre over a decade of trying(!); whilst in covid-safe Madeira Sonia M,a native of the island, placed an impressive 2nd woman in a National Series 30k mountain race and a month later went one better, first woman after close to 4 hours up hill and down Madeiran dale.
We held a small informal unofficial but accurate race in Batterea where several scored half marathon PBs whilst particularly pleasing was to see Harry P knock a big chunk off his marathon PB with a solo 2.57.41. Its actually quite rare that I am physically present at marathon finish lines of runners so it was great to see this one at very close hand.
