Byron Passes the Distance Test

Four members of Bury AC competed in Sunday’s Greater Manchester Marathon which took place in near perfect weather conditions. First to finish was men’s team captain Byron Edwards who knocked a massive four minutes off his previous best time with an excellent 2:54.09. Edwards finished 187^th overall and took 32^nd in his V40 age category. He made his marathon experience count with almost metronomic pacing, maintaining a speed of 41 minutes for each 10k.

Second Bury finisher was Benn Heywood, competing in his first marathon. Heywood was pleased with his finishing time of 3:25.14 but he struggled with a series of cramps over the last 10k which slowed him from the 3 hours pace that he had been keeping up to the 30k mark. Next finisher for Bury was Mark Simkins who completed the course in 4:30.57 followed by ultra distance runner Irfan Qureshi who finished with a time of 4:44.53 working his way through the field to take 423^rd in his V50 age category.

In a weekend that was largely free of club competition a number of Bury AC runners competed in local 5k parkruns. Sophie Whittaker set a new pb of 18.26 and racked up another first place in holding off the challenges of Giles Bennett (18.37) and Stefan Kalambouka (18.45). Ed Hitchin celebrated his 70^th birthday with a run at the Warrington event, setting the very respectable time of 24.34. He was joined by colleagues Alison Dale (25.01), Nicola Brown (27.39), Brianne Turner (30.51) and daughter Pam (30.55).