October 24, 2024

Yorkshire Marathon

The Yorkshire Marathon 2024.

The weather forecast for Sunday 20 October 2024 looked ominously grim for the UK. The organisers of the Great South Run took the decision to cancel that race on Saturday due to the expected wind and rain brought to the UK by Storm Ashley. The forecast for York was for heavy rain from 8am through to 1pm with strong winds of up to 40 plus mph for about three hours. Fortunately, the weather forecast was not accurate and whilst it was windy and wet at times, with the occasional blast of horizontal rain, in all honestly, it was actually ok for running.

Before the start of the marathon, the town crier did his bit of ringing and shouting which got everyone ready to go. As well as the marathon which starts at 9:30am, there is a ten-mile race which starts 30 minutes later, both of which start and finish at York University. Each route heads into the city centre, through the city walls and past the Minster, before heading out into the countryside where the course splits, as you would expect at the five-mile mark. Marathon runners continue through a number of small villages with spectators dotted along the way. There are specific spectator areas which can be reached by families and friends who choose to use the bus service provided by the organisers. These are small out and back sections which gives good support and encouragement for a while, but it’s not too overwhelming. In all it’s a really good course.

For Matlock AC, two runners completed the marathon with Ian Watson finishing in 267th position in an impressive 3:01:59. A bit further back in 1,700th was Dan Ashcroft who finished in 3:49:16. The race was won by George Ravenhall (Airecentre Pacers RC) in 2:24:39 with Heather Townsend (Leeds City AC) taking first lady, there were 5,335 runners.

For me, this was a return to where marathon running started and there has been a gap of 8 years and 40 marathons in between the two. Much of this can be put down to the fact that the race clashes with Palma, Mallorca which has been visited on 5 of those years. I won’t leave it so long next time.

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