On Sunday, 13 members of Collingwood AC ran the London Marathon, whilst two were in the Shakespeare Marathon, and two more in the Shakespeare Half Marathon at Stratford-upon-Avon.

Some fared better than others in the warmer than forecast conditions with results ranging from personal bests to a personal worst.

At London, Dave Ross was the first member home in 3:03:14, somewhat outside his best and suffering after the finish.

Andy Stalley was next home in 3:18:56 having started off at an optimistic pace and then fading a little and having to take a couple of walking breaks to regain his breath. Steve Cooney followed him in 3:23:23.

Steve had opted for a sensible strategy of a conservative start and a late push to finish strongly and dampened Martin’s spirits as he passed him on Parliament Square.

Martin Lloyd caught sight of Dave Johnson at around 4 miles but lost him again until the 19 mile point in Canary Wharf.

Dave was complaining then that his legs were gone and Martin passed him, only to be passed back late on in the race when the tables were turned and Martin’s legs were protesting.

Dave seemed to have rejuvenated somewhat and finished in 3:25:49. Martin was treading water by this time and had his worst ever time of 3:26:55.

Having run 3:12 last year, Bob Chart was aiming for sub 3 hours this time but the heat got to him and he faded badly, ending up with 3:36:30.

Bill Walsh had a good run in 3:45:27 not far outside his best. Ben Cady also did well in his debut marathon.

Ben had been aiming for 4 hours and wasn’t far off the mark, finishing in 4:13:05.

Mel Johnstone was still suffering from a leg injury and took things steadily for 4:09:48. Rob Wilson is still continuing to knock out repeated marathons at around the 5 hour mark even though he’s now 75 and today was no exception with 5:04:20 in his 350th marathon.

Doug White did 5:44:27 and Kate Knight 6:26:45. Alex King was another running his debut marathon and managed a creditable 5:38:17.

Meanwhile, at Stratford, Nicola Dicks and Maja Mosegaard were running the half marathon. Nicola started off at a pace that would bring her home at around her best time and felt so comfortable that she was able to surge later in the race to finish strongly and beat her best by about 3 minutes, in 1:42:05, still with energy to spare.

Maja was running her first half marathon and was very pleased with her debut, finishing in 2:23:56.

Allan Rumbles and Annette Helliwell were running the full marathon at Stratford. Allan was a little disappointed with his 3:11:22, wanting to beat his best time of 3:10 from a few weeks ago.

Annette however, was very pleased with her time of 4:53:26, hammering her previous best at last year’s London Marathon by about 58 minutes.

The club concluded the day with a post-race party at All Bar One in Sutton to refuel and swap stories of their various fortunes and what might have been.