Worcester Marathon
Guest reporter – John Brennan
After completing his night shift, Dennis Belbin joined Dan Ashcroft for tail runner duties at the White Peak marathon on Saturday as a warm-up for a trip to the other side of the Midlands to take on the Worcester marathon on Sunday. Athletic preparations were completed with a two-hour drive to former teammate John Brennan’s house, a pack of Hobgoblin and Eurovision on TV. Once it was confirmed to be rubbish as usual, the Matlock representatives retired to the shed for some much-needed sleep.
Disaster occurred in the night when Dennis almost sustained a snoring injury (murder), courtesy of Dan, who was kept awake until 4am. Luckily Dan didn’t have enough energy to kill Dennis so he got to enjoy his porridge in guilt later that morning while receiving death stares instead.
After parking up at Worcester Warriors rugby ground, we made the short journey across the road to the much smaller Worcester RFC ground, where the race is based. Around 1000 runners were gathering for the 10km, half and full marathon events and after 20 mins stood next to a very loud PA, it was time for the 500m walk to the start point. The runners set off up the first of many inclines on an undulating course, following a picturesque route along Worcestershire country lanes. After passing through the villages of Oddingley, Tibberton and Crowle, the marathoners complete a second lap and additional loop. The half marathoners get to take a glorious right turn after 11 miles and enjoy the downhill sprint to the end. In Worcester, the half marathon is revered and nobody would ever look down on it or call it a fun run.
Dan was first one back from the Matlock contingent, storming around the rugby pitch to finish 44th out of 224 finishers in a time of 3:45:55. Not too far behind him was Dennis in 95th place with a time of 04:10:36. A magnificent effort from both on a very tough course, having completed another marathon less than 24 hours previously.
The team soon headed to the pub for a much-deserved Sunday Roast and an unclear number of beers in several other pubs. Recoiling in horror at the thought of another vegetarian breakfast on Monday morning, Dan spent the night in the local Travelodge (and enjoyed a quiet night’s sleep). Dennis reminded me the next day that I had agreed to write the race report and that I’d made notes at some point in the night after several beers. Thank goodness I wrote them, I wouldn’t have known what to put otherwise:
