Lynne Kerr has competed in Spain for a few years now, usually in Benidorm but the Mitja Marato, the Barcelona Half Marathon,was a first. In the 2014 version, which was held on Sunday, she had club support. Catherine Roberts and Jill Aicken were also among the 13,000 finishers. Catherine ran an impressive 1:32.11 hr for 1695th, Lynne was 3777th in 1:40.34 and Jill 6181st in 1:48.51. The conditions were good for the race with the weather overcast and no wind. The race was on a pretty flat course with only 1 lap through the city centre in a well organised event.
As mentioned, this was the first time for Lynne in Barcelona and her time was the best for 8 years and was 3 mins faster than Benidorm in November 2013. This was only Catherine’s 2nd half marathon and she was 5 mins faster than Groomsport. She said she should have been faster as she felt strong at the end. Jill had been suffering from a knee injury for a few weeks which restricted her training, she had to stop at 10 miles due to the pain but then continued on to the finish.
Florence Kiplagat ran 65.12mins to break the world best time and was 4th overall.