Five North Down runners made the trip to Manchester to run the UK’s second largest marathon event on Sunday morning. Billed as the official selection race for the Commonwealth games the race attracted elite runners and the inevitable fast times.
Dale Murray took a massive 22 minutes off his previous marathon time when he finished in 2:37:05, previously running 2:59 around the Dublin course under the guidance of Paul Pollock. Dale ran the race steady throughout until the dreaded cramps appeared with a few miles to go but still managed to finish with his remarkable time.
Ashley Dixon also took a decent chunk off his pb, previously 2:56 in Belfast and now 2:44:55 while Paul Floyd pb’d but with the smallest of margins, 4 seconds as he recorded 2:56:23. Seasoned marathoner Andy Belshaw made it a quartet of club pb’s when he shaved over 3 minutes from his previous best as he clocked 3:08:23.
Gerry O’Boyle completed the club representation and technically he also had a pb. Going through halfway in 1:47 took its toll on Gerry but despite his struggles on the homeward half, he still managed to finish the race and record 4:12:40.