On Sunday 13th April, HAC athletes Matt Zimmerman, Shaun Burns, Nikki Penty-Alvarez and I (Patrick Griffin), ventured to Wales to run the ABP Newport Marathon.
Not exactly a local marathon for us, but the course was revised in 2024 and is now considered one of the fastest and flattest marathon courses in Europe.
It is also a big event for a relatively small Welsh town with over 10 thousand runners expected to take part in the various races on the day and great support from numerous spectators and Marshalls. It felt special to be running this event, certainly the biggest race I have taken part in.
The route was really quite flat, only the occasional bump or bridge to slow you, probably more problematic were the exposed sections and cambered road surface but mostly it was country roads and tall hedges gave some shelter. It was also fully closed roads and an interesting route with the famous transported bridge, a lap of the athletics stadium and the ‘famous’ castle which features on the finishers medal.
For most of us this was our second ever road marathon after Abingdon 6 months before. The training block was harder through the winter with dark evenings and illness. Shaun and Matt particularly having a tough time, Shaun with illness and Matt managing an injury. This time though we had a better idea what to expect and also greater expectations!
Shaun was going for a sub 3 hour time, having just missed this by a minute at Abingdon. Shaun set off with a group running with the 3 hour pacer. The pace though was well over the 3 hour pace and at half way point the pacer himself had to retire with injury leaving the group in a bit of disarray. Of course the final miles are where it counts in a marathon and things were getting difficult. Entering the last mile Shaun knew it would be close to three hours. An all out effort for the last mile and Shaun came home in a fantastic 2.59.35, much to his relief.
Nikki had a 3 hour 15 minute target as her goal. She spent the first half of the race trying to catch the pacers who had (strangely) started the race in the wave ahead. Once she had caught them Nikki kept pushing at the same pace until mile 22 when she really started to feel the pain. From then on it was a mental battle to fight the pain and keep going. Nikki achieved a time of 3.11.14, a PB of seven minutes and top 10 finish in the ladies field. A brilliant achievement!
Matt was the most experienced marathon runner in our group. His training block had not gone to plan though. Initial intentions of improving on his 3 hour 19 minute PB had to be put on the back burner and this run was for the experience. Matt came in with a time of 3.44.45. I was aiming for 3 hours 20 minutes. Settled into a 4.40 – 4.45/km pace early on which felt fine until mile 20 when I started to notice speed was dropping off. I had run with Matt for a period which was great, seeing Shaun and Nikki running back the way lifted the spirits. As did seeing Katie Newman who had come out to support. The last few miles my legs had nothing and any extra effort led to cramp, it was just a case of getting over the line and not throw away all I had gained earlier in the run. The last mile felt awful but I had done better than I thought and finished in a time of 3.22.42 a PB by 3 minutes.
A well deserved roast dinner after the race.
Overall the race was won by Daniel Husbands from Shrewsbury AC in 2.27.57 and Melissah Gibson from Ealing Eagles in 2.38.31
