Eight local runners survive the rigours of the London Marathon (From Wilts and Gloucestershire Standard)

Eight local runners survive the rigours of the London Marathon

THIS year saw eight members of Bourton Road Runners successfully completing the Flora London Marathon with many more making the trip just to cheer them on.

With a winter of hard training behind them, the eight were among 32,000 runners at the start on Blackheath common on a drenching morning.

In fact, it rained during most of the race but, after a few miles, the runners soon warmed up and those in fancy dress were only to pleased with the cool conditions.

As Bourton's Ali Lane was in the elite ladies' race, she started 30 minutes ahead of the masses.

The first half of the race went to plan until, with ten miles to go, the effects of the rain and cold caught up with her and she started to slow.

But she still reached the finish in The Mall, clocking a respectful 3hr 14min 2sec and also a personal best by 11 seconds.

Though a bit disappointed with her time. Ali was delighted to finish as the tenth lady vet 45 and 192nd overall in the ladies' race.

Competing in his first-ever marathon, Alaistair Lockey was the first member in the mass race to finish for the club.

With a time of 3.11.42, the fastest for the club on the day, he was well inside of his target of 3.15 and also raised nearly £3,000 for the Meningitis Trust.

Sarah Clemo, also doing a marathon for the first time, stuck religiously to her training plan.

She easily got under her target of 3.45 by finishing in 3.28.38, despite getting held up for the first two miles. She also finished 411th lady overall.

John Gibson completed the course in 4.08.18 in his Hamlet costume and grabbed the attention of no less than Sally Gunnell as he passed by the Tower hotel and even stopped for an interview which was shown on the BBC.

John was glad to reach the finish and, as he did so, was interviewed by Sky TV! He raised £1,300 for Cardiomyopathy Research.

Dressed in his Mad Hatter costume, Tony Goodwill, who had competed in the Taunton marathon two weeks earlier, raised £3,500 for the Multiple Sclerosis Society.

He ran the whole way with Steve Humphries who was dressed as the devil in his first marathon for 18 months. The pair finished in 4.15 with both finding the last two to three miles quite tough.

Ed Rozier jogged along with John Gibson for the first nine miles and enjoyed the cool conditions.

He was thrilled to run a PB by eight minutes and, despite a slow second half, finished in 4.23.22.

Gill Wilkie had just done enough training to get her around the course and, after a slow start due to the large numbers, took 13 minutes to run the first mile.

But she enjoyed the whole atmosphere of the day in her fifth marathon and was well satisfied with her time of 4.41.03.

So ended a successful day for the Bourton Road Runners with personal bests, marathon debuts and lots of money raised for various charities.

Everyone enjoyed the best marathon in the world with a great sense of pride and achievement.