Thirteen members of Waveney Valley A.C. took part in Sunday’s London Marathon. More than 40,000 runners faced the record hot temperatures for the event, and over 38,000 crossed the finish line. Waveney’s athletes all completed the race safely and returned home in good spirits.

Ross Lambert ran a very high standard time of 2.38:28 and was just outside the top 100 finisher’s. He improved on his previous time, at New York in November, by just over a minute. After just 8 week’s training following injury and illness, Samantha Lines produced a fantastic personal best time of 3.09:12.

The race times of Steve Carruthers have got faster in recent month’s over several distances, and his time on Sunday of 3.20:04 was another good performance. Mark Thompson was the club’s next finisher, with a time of 3.30:02. Becky Langford, running in aid of Prostate Cancer UK, finished in 3.37:48, just three minutes outside her best time.

Lisa Knights recorded a time of 3.42:25, raising funds for the Roy Castle Lung Cancer Foundation. Matt Jeffries has endured several months of injury, but the enthusiastic club member still made it to the start line. He ran with Samantha Lines until the 20-mile mark but was then hampered by his injury and slowed down. For most of the latter stages of the race, he assisted a struggling competitor and crossed the finish line, with Tina, in 3.52:12, more than an hour outside his best. Matt has previously won a marathon, but on Sunday he won huge respect and a new friend.

David Mower was competing in his fourth London Marathon and crossed the line this year in 4.36:14. Tim Moore was next in 4.48:06. Tim’s ‘negative split’ was interesting, running the first half in a steady 2.51, then the 2nd half in a much speedier 1.57. Grainne Purvis, raising money for Sence, was running in her 2nd ‘London’ and achieved a new PB of 5.03:25.

Daren Coulter, in his debut marathon, finished in 5.20:38 and raised £1,000 for Access Community Trust. Gavin Hamilton crossed the line in 6.07:54 and Amie Ogilvie, in her debut also, recorded a time of 6.38:48. She raised a terrific sum of £2,600 for Spinal Research after her husband Kev was injured by an IED blast whilst serving in Afghanistan in 2012 and is paralysed from the waist down. Prospective new member Rain Crowson, who started training with the club recently, finished in 6.28:31.