Storm Ciara causes havoc to racing

Sharon and Paul Sharples travelled to Milton Keynes to take part in the third day of four marathons, named the Quadzilla Marathons, organised by Enigma Running.

The venue was set at Caldecotte Lake in Bletchley. The race was run in an anti-clockwise direction, and comprised of 3 mile loops around the lake. Weather conditions were great, with conditions improving as the race developed.

Sharon and Paul ran together, and produced a great time of 4:28:00, which was slightly longer than the marathon distance.

The Exeter Half Marathon took place on Saturday 8^th February. Unfortunately, Storm Caira caused the cancellation of Sundays repeat event.

The race is a great flat, traffic free course run on the footpaths and cycle tracks around the River Exe and Exeter Canal. The route and distance makes it suitable for all, especially those chasing PB's or novice runners looking to complete their first event.

Two Trotters, Josh Medway & Scott Knight were amongst the starters. Both ran well and produced good times.

Josh clocked a time of 1:48:36 to finish 178^th and Scott was placed 282^nd, crossing the line in 2:19:40.

There were 285 entrants. Chris Rimmer, representing Tavistock Run Project, won the event in 1:11:43.

Graydon Widdicombe travelled to Shrewsbury to take part in the Darwin Day Marathon on Friday 7th February, excellently organised by How Hard Can It Be Events.

Held at Shrewsbury Sports Village, this event was 43.5 laps of the cycle track with a few corners, so the GPS measured closer to 27-miles, although it’s an accurately measured course! Graydon's main aim was to try and finish feeling strong producing a negative split, in contrast to Marrakech the other week.

It was a cold start to the race, and remained that way for the duration of the race. Quite unusually for Graydon, he wore a long sleeved top all race, and didn’t feel the need to discard it. The course was a bit slippery in some places but more than manageable, and easy to stay upright with no issues.

Graydon started steadily and went through half way in about 1:55 ish, but then started to overtake a few runners. His controlled run mean’t he completed the course in 3:42:50. Graydon was happy with this well managed run, and was a nice confidence booster, for what was his 76th marathon.