London Calling – Hot, Heroic & even Historic!

20 BRC runners competed in the hottest London Marathon of all time this weekend, having trained throughout the winter months they took to the streets of London in temperatures exceeding 24 degrees. 

With even the elite athletes struggling in some cases, we had PB’s, sub 3 hours times, 1st timers, mad multiple marathoners and even a Guinness world record!

First across the line for Benfleet was Lee Baynton in 2.42.42 a PB of just under 2 minutes and a fantastic position 212 out of over 40,000 starters, next was Andy Low in 2.48.07 in 350 place and 26th in his age category followed up by Chris Wayman the 3rd of our runners to complete in under 3 hours in 2.52.30.

Finishing in sub 3.30 were the following Nick Rankin 3.03.23, Adam Matthews 3.12.25, Peter Stalley 3.12.57 , Dan Carter 3.13.33 (3rd marathon of 7 in 6 weeks)  & James Caldon (More later!) in 3.28.48.

We had 4 1st time marathon runners, 1st home of these was Steve Churchyard in 3.46.46, Graham Douglass in 4.31.37 , Matt Humphrey in 4.51.32, and Vickie Harvey in 5.45.44, plus Alan Caulfield in his 1st in 13 years in 5.07.07
 
1st of the Benfleet women to cross the line was Shelley Hall still breaking 4 hours in what she describes as the toughest race of her life in 3.59.53, next running for Havens was Georgia Bath in 4.45.26 followed by Susan Billington in 4.58.32.

Sean Allison (3rd of 3 marathons in 3 weeks) finished in 4.42.50, Kevin Judge 4.56.19, Paul Daly 5.07.20, Sussana Hunt 5.53.58, an injured Mandy Cooper in 6.37.55 and Lee Allen in 6.42.15.

As many of you are aware we also had a club member attempting a world record, James Caldon who is a qualified tennis coach attempted to beat the world record running his 6 London marathon this time dressed as a tennis player with full kit including racket and balls. The record previously set at 3.44 was smashed by James who finished in 3.28.48.

In quite a different race for James he said “The crowd and other runners were amazing all the way through the race, I lost count of the times I got called Roger, Rafa, Andy, Bjorn and many more tennis player names. It was the hardest race I’ve completed with the outfit and the weather but it’s all been for a great cause and we’ve raised some money for our charity, Project Orangutan”

We should also mention all our marshals and supporters on the day who I am sure our runners would want me to extend their thanks to for their cheers and encouragement around the course and on our official marshal point. 

FULL RESULTS BELOW

Place overall Place gender Place cat. Name Finish
212 212 164 » Baynton, Lee (GBR) 02:42:42
350 345 26 » Low, Andrew (GBR) 02:48:07
544 537 386 » Wayman, Christopher (GBR) 02:52:30
1350 1296 11 » Rankin, Nicholas (GBR) 03:03:23
2128 2006 412 » matthews, adam (GBR) 03:12:25
2186 2057 428 » Stalley, Peter (GBR) 03:12:57
2259 2123 1223 » Carter, Dan (GBR) 03:13:33
4149 3697 1840 » caldon, james (GBR) 03:28:48
6958 5708 2664 » Churchyard, Steven (GBR) 03:46:46
9672 2201 322 » Hall, Shelley (GBR) 03:59:53
16272 11739 1873 » Douglass, Graham (GBR) 04:31:37
18884 13338   Sean Allison 04.42.50
19524 5779 3086 » Bath, Georgia (GBR) 04:45:26
20965 14622 6940 » Humphrey, Matthew (GBR) 04:51:32
22144 15307 50 Kevin Judge 04:56:19
22704 7061 600 » Billington, SUSAN (GBR) 04:58:32
24605 16731 7997 » Caulfield, Alan John (GBR) 05:07:07
24652 16757 2585 » Daly, Paul (GBR) 05:07:20
32166 11614 6291 Harvey, Victoria 05:45:44
33460 12311 2228 » Hunt, Susanna (GBR) 05:53:58
37901 14942 1969 Mandy Cooper 06:37:55
38131 23036 2433 » Allen, Lee (GBR) 06:42:15