Gala Harriers take on the Highs and Lows of London
April 13th, 2003The London Marathon is one of the biggest mass participation events in the world and seven Gala Harriers made the trip this year.
All have trained hard for the last four months through the worst weather that the borders could throw at them, so it was with a great sense of anticipation that they lined up with Paula Radcliffe and a host of other world class athletes last Sunday.
Having been soaked and frozen throughout much of their training, it came as a bit of a shock to the system to find themselves running in temperatures over 20 degrees on the day.
Suzanne Carson did literally line up along side Paula Radcliffe, as she was one of 80 elite women athletes who took part in the early race, with the Sports Personality of the Year. Suzanne was determined to get under the elusive 3-hour mark for the first time but found the warm conditions too much for her near the end of the race and recorded a time of 3.02.25.Th
is is still a very fast time and although a minute slower than her time last year, placed Suzanne 9th in her age category and 49th overall.
While Suzanne ran on relatively quiet streets, our other harriers took part in the main race with 40,000 runners. Eileen Nichol ran a very steady and even race to record 3.42.22 and the harrier’s sole male competitor, Dave Nightingale, overcame injury and illness to record 3.56.23. Dave was still fresh enough to sprint down the Mall to the finish and enjoyed every minute of his race.
Angela Foss was very confident of doing well before the race but found the warm conditions too much for her and could only record 4.00.10 but she is determined to give it another go next year. Aileen Anderson is in the TA and has trained hard for her first marathon but she ran into the dreaded ‘wall’ at 23 miles and had to dig in hard to finish very tired but happy in a time of 4.20.18.
Paulette Ashford-Smith was running in her 5th London Marathon but her last based in Gala she recorded a very respectable 4.22.02 and was very pleased with her run. She will no doubt be there again next year but she won’t have to travel so far as she and her family have just moved down South to live. Paulette will be missed by all in the club and everyone wishes them well in their new home.
Kate Grimsditch was determined to run in this year’s race but she had to raise over 1000 before she could get her running number. In the end Kate has raised over 1200 for her charity, Chest, Heart and Stroke Scotland, she overcame a niggling knee injury to record 4.32.25 and was delighted with her achievement.
