“You have nurtured a love of running and exercise in us”

  Club members at Balsall Common. L to R : Alex Adams, Cindy Brittan, Pete Sugden, Bev Bridgen, Dave Maundrell, Tash Watkins, John Butler, Pippa Abrams, Luke Watlkins and Ruth Calderbank. A relatively quiet week. Andy Cox, Simon Bolton and Pete Evans ran the Berlin Marathon and we had 10 members competing at Balsall Common. Emily Adams and Adrian Mason ran the Cheltenham half and Phil Brennan kept his hopes alive of being selected for the England Masters team later in the year. There's a lovely heartfelt letter from Louise Boxall with her thoughts on the Couch to 5k group she joined and commenting on the support all members of that group got from other club members. The letter confirms what we already know, we really are part of a very special club. Enjoy the rest of your week. Best Wishes David Jones Andy Cox edged ever closer to a sub 3 hour marathon at Boston. Berlin Marathon. Report - Phil Brennan. Three Stratford runners maintained the tradition of taking on the world’s biggest, at the Berlin Marathon on 29th September. The course is known to be fast, although hit by rain late on, and attracted over 46,000 entries, with the winner missing the world record by two seconds. Andy Cox prepared perfectly for the event, and was rewarded with a stunning 12 minutes off his PB, despite “the heavens opening at around 30k". In 2799th, his 3:04:00 puts a sub-three hour finish in his sights. He was followed by Simon Bolton, 4698, 3:16:11. This was Simon's 10th marathon and his 5th World Marathon Majors event. Going into the race he had the usual niggles that he's come to expect at the end of a marathon training regime but nothing too serious. His primary objective was to get across the line successfully but he had a target of 3:20 firmly in his mind. The conditions at the beginning of the race were near perfect from Simon's perspective; good temperature, dry and little wind. He quickly settled into a nice rhythm of around 4.42/km which felt comfortable. Having always suffered towards the end of previous marathons he worked hard to control his pace. By 30k the rain started to come down, but he started to feel increasingly confident so pushed a little harder and ran through to the end of the race feeling strong, even putting in a decent sprint finish. The result was his first negative split by 1min 20sec, and an 8 minute marathon PB . Having missed out on Boston qualifying for the last two years by seconds, He thinks he's nailed it this time! Third of the trio, Pete Evans, knows his way round the big marathon courses and recorded a solid 3:41:38 despite feeling unwell over the last 5k and being forced to slow down. A letter of thanks. FROM COUCH TO 5k AND BEYOND… " The runners who gave up their time to help, inspire and motivate us week by week are fantastic - you…