During September and early October, the amazing Chris Foley has turned up at just about every major road race in the calendar to string together an incredible series of results.
When combined with his training efforts, he has surely run 500 miles. Considering the Proclaimers only walked it, and even then had plenty of Irn Bru breaks on route, Chris’ is surely the superior feat of endurance. Although walking/running 500 miles is losing its cachet as the ultimate romantic gesture. I offered to do it for my wife, but she said she’d prefer it if I just loaded the dishwasher and took the bins out once in a while.
I’ve already reported on Chris’ excellent effort at the Great North Run, with a run well inside two hours for the Half, and just missing out on a top-10 age-category finish.
Yet that was just a mere warm-up for the main event, the London Marathon, the capo de tutti capi of all road races. Chris completed the demanding 26.2 miles in under four and a half hours and flew the TRC flag alongside the wonderful Hannah Hamilton. Hannah was the deserved recipient of the club’s guaranteed marathon entry this year, and she made the most of it, and should be absolutely delighted with her sub 3hrs 30 min run which demonstrated just how well her training plan came together for the big day.
The lactate was still stiffening the sinews when Chris dusted off the daps and turned out on the streets of Bath for the long-anticipated and much-rearranged half marathon. A mere fortnight after London, Chris ran a brilliant 1 hr 55 minutes to beat his time set in Gateshead. Roger Glew also ran at Bath and should be very pleased with his 1 hr 51 minutes, which is a good two minutes quicker than his time at Bristol the previous month. The fastest TRC performance of the day went to George Evans – the Kington Kipchoge – who also improved on his Bristol performance with a brilliant 1 hr 23 mins 31 secs. This was an average pace, per mile, of 6 mins 22 secs.
However, Chris wasn’t done yet, and just seven days later, turned up at Stroud for what was, by all accounts, a foul day with howling wind and lashing rain. Yet Chris ran 1 hr 51 minutes to slice another sizeable slab of time off his effort of the week before. So there you have it, boys and girls, forget resting and tapering and carefully scheduling your efforts – just run marathons and half-marathons every week and you’ll get faster and faster! Until you get injured of course, but hey, this isn’t a coaching column!
The Stroud Half was the latest in the Pete Mainstone Challenge series, and aside from Chris’ heroics, there were some other excellent performances from Thornbury members. Nick Langridge was the fastest TRC runner on the day, running 1 hr 39 minutes, which for his age-category equates to an 81% score. It goes without saying that he was the winner in the category too. Nick is looking strong favourite to retain the overall race-series title he won last year.
Jo Plumbley was the only Thornbury lady to take part, and she ran an excellent 1hr 44. Not many of our ladies’ team have taken part in the PM Challenge this year, but with several races to go it looks like it could still be a very close contest to see who secures the title. Richard Jackson is improving all the time and he ran a fabulous 1hr 40 minutes; all the more impressive considering the conditions. Hugh McPherson was just outside the 2 hr mark but would still have finished high up in his age category.