Week Ending - 2025/04/19

MANCHESTER MAGIC

There were some superb performances at the 2026 Manchester Marathon, with Badgers numbers reaching double figures for the fast, flat 26.2-mile race in the north of England. Some were aiming to complete their first marathon; others were aiming to improve on previous attempts over what most see in distance running as the ultimate test.

First back in a rapid 2:38:07 was former men’s captain, Ryan Preece. The 29-year-old is the second fastest marathoner in Badgers history, and after a superb training block, had high hopes of raising an already ridiculously high bar. Aiming for the stars, the mathematics graduate sent his first half of the race in a sensational 77 minutes, but try as he might, he could not sustain his early pace. Known as much for his guts and determination as much as his undoubted speed, Preece battled on in a grim second half, losing time but never dipping below 6:30 for any mile. It is a mark of his outstanding character that when he crossed the line, battered beyond belief, he had achieved a time just 21 seconds short of his personal best, set in London two years ago, despite his race not going to plan. This means his three fastest marathons have all been within a minute of each other, demonstrating an incredible consistency of high-level performance. 

His friend and training buddy Luke Neal was next home, setting a personal best by the narrowest of margins. After almost three hours of slogging around the rainy capital of the UK, the Rugby-based athlete dug really deep in the latter stages to not only bag his second sub-three marathon, but a personal best by just 11 seconds, which all count! His application to training in the lead-up to the event undoubtedly helped his cause, and he was suitably proud of yet another eclipsing of the marathon runner’s holy grail.

Rising star Jack Burton-Peet has been in sensational form in 2026, and he was hoping to beat his debut marathon time of 3:23 with a trip to Manchester. In the lead-up, all the signs were positive, and the end result was arguably even better than anybody expected and with bells on. After a moderate start, the 33-year-old began to hit his straps and was able to consistently pace through to halfway. The second half of the race was quite superb, a textbook run more befitting of a marathon veteran, not someone on only his second go. Finishing strongly and overtaking many runners who had run out of steam, Burton-Peet completed his race in even splits, a magnificent achievement and his reward was a big new personal best of 3:02:32. If his development continues on a positive trend, a sub-three time is a very real possibility in the next twelve months.

Cameron Barnes suffered in the second half of the race but still had the wherewithal to battle on through, getting to the line in 3:07:33, a seven-minute personal best time and a rich reward for yet more good training, a good deal of which was done solo.  

Erica Bassford was hoping to improve on her Budapest marathon time of just over five hours, and her training was very much a blueprint for success. That said, the deed still needed to be done, and with a first half split of 1:56, the prospect of a dream sub-4 time was very much on. As fatigue set in later on and the warming effects of the April sun came to bear, the challenge was on to get to the line in time, but the 23-year-old showed great mental toughness to grit it out and get over the line in a magnificent 3:57:41. Nobody keeps records on improvements within the club but it is hard to imagine someone bettering their marathon time by more than the hour and four minutes in one go, as Bassford did here.

There were distance debuts for Rhys Hopwood (4:25:24) and Carl Ford (4:47), who both did magnificently in their first attempts. Jill Miller clocked 4:57 while Vicki Brunsdon bagged a 26-minute PB crossing in 5:02:59, and Albion fan Lee Millership got the job done in 5:46:55. Chris Tweed and Dave Jenkinson also got involved in the action. 

In Newport, Anne-Marie Matthews managed 5:16 in the marathon there, which was run on the same day as Manchester. 

There were even more Badgers in action at the local Cathedral 2 Castle ten-mile race running from Lichfield to Tamworth. Danny Warren led the way for the club with a splendid 5th place finish in 58:10. There were personal bests for Dan Ash (76:27) and Dan Hilton (76:28) while Jim Cottom ran a very respectable 73 minutes. Dan Yoxall made a fine distance debut in 82:35 with Emma Masser, Paul Grubb, Rachael Browne, Nick Barnwell and Fiona Audley all going inside 90 minutes for the scenic event. 

Alice Belcher ran an excellent 90:11 with Bryany Sherwood, Megan Church, Stephanie White, Anna Savin-Baden, Kate Rathbone and Sara Hawkins all going well. It didn’t end there, however, as veteran Paul Restall made it home, as did Vicky Jennings in a shade over two hours. 

At the Uttoxeter Half Marathon, Chris Horton took a minute off his own V50 club record with a super run of 78:38, the third fastest half of his career and on a course as testing as they come. His effort was good enough for third place overall in the event. Fellow stalwart Liz Peel clocked up her 79th career half-marathon at the Mallard Challenge in Kingsbury alongside teammate Yvonne Faulkner-Grant. 

Adrian Payne finished a fine 25th in the Coventry Half Marathon, his time of 82:19 slightly misleading given that all runners ended up covering 512 additional metres due to a misplaced cone on the switchback just before halfway. David Craig, Colin Lees, Mandy Stain and Nick Miles all completed the race too. Matt Scarsbrook travelled to Istanbul, Turkiye, for the international half-marathon there and finished in 32nd place in an elite field in 70:55. 

Maggi Savin-Baden bagged a Gold Standard with her wholehearted run at the Dunstable 5-mile race in 46:22. Stefan Martin completed the ten-mile off-road Martley Madness Trail in 93:21, and Jane Barrett took an age category win at the Cannock Chase trail half in 1:52:38 alongside Matt Green.

There was plenty of action at parkrun, but surprisingly only two top ten finishes. Megan Griffiths finished fourth overall and first lady with her zippy time of 21:57 at Zalew in Poland, and Lil Souter took 5th female on the south coast in the East Brighton parkrun, clocking 28:27, a terrific finish.