Highest ever number of WAC finishers in this year’s marathon.
The red army marched on London this weekend with massive WAC support along the route, much appreciated by our 19 race finishers. Here are the official times for Wimborne runners.
Anthony Clark – 3:01:01
Adie Mead – 3:12:33
Andrew Olden – 3:26:19
Annie Dougall – 3:38:57
Richard Atkins – 3:42:39
Pete Lemon – 3:57:17
Phil Whitehurst – 4:00:00
Paul Hine – 4:01:59
Jeff Hinsley – 4:05:37
Michele Whitehurst – 4:26:11
Jools Maskell – 4:35:47
Wendy Kennedy – 4:43:08
Guy Miller – 4:53:21
Paul Teck – 4:58:51
Paula Miles – 5:03:31
Clare Horsley – 5:15:45
Julie Gosling – 5:42:03
Juliet Mellor – 5:42:20
Debbie King – 5:43:23
Juliet Mellor reports.
As you probably all know by now, I’ve had a couple of bad years health-wise, which has meant on and off running for me. I just recover from a bad Achilles tendonitis, then I get my London place in the marathon yippee! Now I have to get back to running.
Then boom, I start having problems and severe pain in my hands, arm and toe joint all at different times. To cut a long story short I am diagnosed with palindromic rheumatism (auto immune disease).
The rheumatologist says ‘NO marathon, the damage you do now to your joints will make your future worse’, so I say what about power walking it? (I’m not losing that place). So that’s how my journey started.
First of all I want to say thanks for all your support and waiting for me to cross the line, I didn’t know how long I was going to take, and I didn’t want to keep you all there which is why I decided not to tell anyone!
I had the most amazing time doing this marathon as I had no expectations and no time to beat! I secretly wanted to do 5.45 and if that became impossible under six would be fine, or if things were going badly wrong just FINISH!!
When we arrived at the start I felt sick with nerves, but we managed to sneak into pen 4, so I thought to myself I will run the first three to warm up, and start walking when the blue/red/green starts merge, so that’s what I did and I felt great.
It was good to be running again, I had done a few small jogs in my training so I knew that I would be fine. The merging was great everyone booing and laughing, I felt so positive I could have carried on, but I knew it was not a good idea I would have hit that wall with a big bang! So I got into my pace of speed /power walking to change the momentum.
I saw Wendy early on which was great, thanks for your encouragement. Then the miles just went, I loved every minute of it, I took in all the sights, the bands and the crowds. I got to 14mile crossover and looked out for Adee, and guess what I saw him! I shouted and waved and that spurned me on a bit more, then before I knew it I was going over Tower Bridge, I saw Julie G a couple of times that was great, it’s very comforting to see a familiar face.
At this stage I was feeling good and I was overtaking loads of runners which encouraged me on, before I knew it I was at 24 miles but my feet were starting to hurt and legs feeling tight, but was not going to slow down now and risk coming in over six, so I just kept positive and kept going, I was getting emotional thinking don’t cry yet or you’ll have a black face when my mascara runs, and then I saw the balloons and that was my signal to jog to the finish and then I saw everyone wow!! When I passed you all I did have a little moment, but pulled myself together for the photo. Although I did walk and felt like a fraud for not running at the beginning of my training, this was a personal challenge and I really enjoyed it.
Juliet’s official time was 5:42:20.
