Cirencester AC and Triathlon Club

SIX members of Cirencester AC lined up with the 38,000 runners in last Sunday's London Marathon. Early morning drizzle gave way to good running conditions through the morning, leading to some impressive performances including two club records from the team.

First home was newly-appointed club captain Simon Campbell in a personal best time of 2hr 43min which put him among the top 400 finishers.

Next was Jill Hadland running her first London Marathon in an excellent 3:28m which set a new FV45 club record.

She was closely followed by David Moss (3:40) and James Widdowson (3:46).

Richard Hobbs was ahead of them at halfway but suffered over the closing miles to finish just outside the four-hour mark.

David Lattimore, who was also a London Marathon debutant, celebrated by establishing a new FV65 club record with 4:46.

MARTIN CROUCHER prefers rather stiffer challenges and as part of his preparations for the Comrades Double Marathon in South Africa took part in an unusual event in Kent.

A time limit of six hours was set for runners to complete as many laps of a 3.28-mile course as they wished. Martin settled on 10 to give him a total distance of 33 miles.

Shakespeare Half-Marathon

KEITH FIRKIN chose the more conventional Shakespeare Half-Marathon finishing 128th out of nearly 1,800 runners with a time of 1:35m at Stratford-on-Avon.

Rock 'n Roll Half in Madrid

CLARE BLAMPIED travelled further afield to run the Rock 'n Roll Half in Madrid which she completed in 2:26m.

Also in Spain were the club's two leading duathletes, Adrian Williams and Wendy Nicholls, but atrocious weather put paid to their efforts in the European Age Group Duathlon Championships.

Another member representing the club abroad was Tony Shelbourn who ran the De Soto 5k in the late afternoon extreme heat and humidity of Florida. However, he overcame the conditions to win his age group, finishing 14th in a time of 20.53.

Also racing over the 5k distance last weekend were three of the club's regular Park Run competitors.

At Swindon, Lisa Carpenter overturned the previous week's result by beating Barbara Thomas in a time of 26.01 with Barbara 27 seconds behind but both were well inside the top half of the 450 finishers. Meanwhile, Ruth Fulford upheld club honours at Cheltenham, finishing 256th in 28.01.