In glorious spring sunshine and in what were perfect running conditions, eight Seaford Striders took to the city streets of Brighton to compete in the country’s second largest marathon event.
The two standout performances for the Striders were by those making their marathon debuts. The phenomenal Joshua Rudd attacked the distance showing no fear and crossed the line just over the 3 hour mark in 3:00:15. Hot on his heels was Scott Hitchcock in 3:05:18 who smashed his target time and just missed out on automatic qualification to the London Marathon. Scott’s remarkable upward trajectory of form in such a short space of time means that he sure to return and break the 3 hour barrier.
Further down the field the battles raged. Kevin Ives and Gareth Hutchinson ran the 26.2m together from start to finish, both clocking 3:30:00 dead as they pipped Phil Robinson to the line (3:30:24). Luke Borland dug deep along the 4 mile ‘finishing straight’ from Shoreham Power Station to Madeira Drive to bag a very creditable 3:36:38 for his first attempt at the distance. Seasoned campaigner Richard Honeyman turned on the gas to register another great marathon effort in 4:19:15 and to add to the glut of PB’s Steve Thomas completed the set with a 5:25:06.
Race report by Gareth Hutchinson, photos by Danny Simpson.