Sunday 3rd October saw the London Marathon resume after Covid and Bolton Harriers had three representatives.
Matt Atkinson ran a great race and came home in 3;15;26. Matt is in training with Dave Shaw’s group at the Harriers, and has also been pounding the roads and trails round Harwood in recent months to supplement his assault on the marathon. He said “It went great and I paced it fairly well. Nice end to the training and doubt there will be more marathons now. Support from the crowds was immense and helped all the runners push onwards. Well run event on the whole. Just glad it’s done with after 18months of waiting and training and am feeling very satisfied !”
Adrian Costello coaches Harrier’s Endurance Group and had been working really hard in preparation for London. He came back with a time of 4;21;51. He commented “The absolute highlight for me was raising more than £2300 for Children With Cancer thanks to all my kind sponsors. It’s a charity I’ve been involved with for a few years now and every donation makes a difference. The marathon was my 4th race in 4 weekends! After the Half Ironman, Swim Serpentine 2 Miles and Manchester 10K. I’ve always wanted to run London and it was an amazing race. Great crowds! Not my fastest marathon but definitely my favourite. Now, time for a rest.”
Beka Millington is part of a tough and talented bunch of ladies in Harrier’s Endurance Group. Events during the race did not go as she would have liked and explained “it was an amazing and awful day in equal measure! I wanted to run a 3:45 and was bang on pace until halfway round… then a combination of factors… my nutrition wasn’t quite right, I was really dehydrated, and then my hamstring started to play up. I rang my partner Josh and sobbed just after the halfway mark but told myself I had to finish. I was running in memory of my next door neighbour so that kept me going! I ditched my pace bands and changed my watch so I couldn’t see my time and just dug deep and focused on getting through it. I think it’s my slowest ever marathon and I absolutely bawled when I crossed the finish line to the point that a couple of other runners asked if I was ok.”
Congratulations to all three and thank you for representing Bolton Harriers in such an iconic race.
