Seven PH athletes made the trip to Germany at the weekend to take on the Frankfurt Marathon, which had been designated as the final race of the PH Club Championship, as well as the inaugural running of the PH Marathon Championship.
The Frankfurt course is mostly flat and popular with club runners seeking fast times. Temperatures on the day were quite chilly, though probably good for a group of peely-wally Scots and an even more peely-wally Geordie. There were strong gusts of headwind in the first half but these did provide some assistance after turning around with about 10 miles to go.
First back to the spectacular indoor finish at the Festhalle was Andrew Wright, running only his second marathon, and first since 2014. Andrew’s time of 2:42:15 gave him a personal best of almost two minutes and placed him sixth V50 in the race. This was despite him slowing slightly from a halfway split of just under 1:18 due to cramp. Andrew was also the first male winner of the PH Marathon Championship.
Dan Monaghan was running his first marathon, having previously been in great shape for the cancelled Manchester Marathon in 2020, and having suffered with injury since. Dan has worked his way back to fitness and has run a number of superb races over the last few months, which culminated in a debut marathon of 2:48:10, with very even pacing throughout. This also secured second place in the PH Club Championship. Thanks to Dan for buying the photo pack so we have some good race images to use.
Stuart Meiklejohn has been chasing a sub three marathon for some time, having missed out by under a minute at London in 2016. After picking up injuries towards the end of his marathon training for the last two years, he was finally able to make it to the start line in one piece and was very happy to make it round in 2:58:28 and achieve his goal, as well as placing as top V40 in the Club Championship.
Peter Gibson and Gary Pirie had both run marathons previously, but not for some years, and they were keen to improve their personal bests which were a bit out of kilter with their other race results. Peter was following Stuart to a sub three early on but was affected by a stitch for more than half the race. Nevertheless, he hung on and bagged himself a personal best of over half an hour, finishing in 3:03:29 and taking fourth place in the Club Championship. Gary took even more off his previous best, timing at 3:15:22, pretty much bang on his target time.
Scott Love was aiming for another Boston qualifying time having achieved this for the last three years but missed out on a place each time when the buffer was announced. A run of 3:20:59 here was not quick enough to earn the right to be rejected for 2027 so a time under 3:15 will again be the target at his next one. Mark Mackenzie has been making a comeback to running after a few years off and had already run two marathons this year in Edinburgh and on Islay, as well as a number of half marathons and other races. Well done to Mark for finishing in 4:13:53.
All in all, it was a very successful trip with some good food and beers to celebrate on Sunday night. Hopefully we will see even bigger numbers for next year’s chosen marathon at Loch Ness, and perhaps our first PH Female Marathon Champion!
PH Racing Club 