THIS year’s London Marathon was confirmed as the hottest in its 37 year history and the five Thornbury RC members who crossed the line deserve enormous praise for completing the race and raising over £6,000 for charity between them.

Target times had to be quickly recalculated and fancy-dress costumes were ditched, as a more cautious approach and self-preservation were the order of the day.

Andrew Darton had promised this would be his third and final London Marathon and had left no stone unturned in his preparation.

After completing the first half in a very respectable one hour 39 minutes, he succumbed to the heat at the 16-mile mark, jogging the majority of the race thereafter.

Andrew was still the only Thornbury runner to break the four hour barrier in a time of three hours 54:16 mins in 8408th place.

Kevin Cundy is an experienced marathon racer and was next in a time of four hours 44:05 mins in 19176th place.

Chris Foley was in the top one hundred in his age group (65-69 yr olds) in 2017 in under four hours and was in good shape on Sunday. Chris finished just behind Kevin in four hours 44:44 mins in 19335th place and 107th in the same age category this year.

This was Sean Underwood’s first attempt over the full marathon distance since taking up running in 2016. Unfortunately, his preparation for Sunday’s race was dogged by a nagging knee problem, but after overcoming much bigger battles losing weight and raising significant sums for his chosen charity, he got to the finish in five hours 20 seconds in 23156th place.

After completing six half marathons in 2017, Rachel Murphy was another making her debut over the full 26.2-mile distance.

Rachel was pushed along by the huge support from the crowd and fellow runners and crossed the line in six hours 37:54 mins in 37897th.

There were personal best times galore at the Thornbury parkrun on Saturday. Henry Orna ran clear of the field to be first finisher in a new personal best of 19:53 mins and only the second TRC runner to break 20 mins on this course.

There were PBs for Paul Harrod in fourth place in 20:21 mins, followed by Paul Thomas 22:08 mins and Clare Watt in 25:21 mins. Mike Bennewitz ran 27:48 mins and Richard Illingworth finished in 32:57 mins.

Dylan Roberts ran a quick 19:03 mins at Chipping Sodbury parkrun in 7th place, followed by Kevin Wood 22:30 mins. Sarah Newnes and Martin Coyle did their first parkruns in times of 26:04 mins and 31:05 mins, respectively. David Palmer ran 26:42 mins and Anne Palmer 31:52 mins.

In the Cattle Country 5k in Berkeley, Pippa Maidment and Rachel Terrett finished near the front of the race in 10th and 11th place overall in times of 28:52 and 28:54 mins.