THE INAUGUARAL Bristol to Bath marathon was declared as a great success by all the Thornbury Running Club members who took on the 26.2 mile challenge. 
The day started at the ‘race village’ in Bristol’s Queen’s Square and all were pleased to be able to get into their stride and begin to warm-up though the sun was never high enough to reach down onto the Portway. 
From the gun, strong runners Rob Hopkins and Matt Johnstone took the lead for Thornbury, with Anthony Yates making a fast start. 
The course was almost flat through Bristol until the border with the South Gloucestershire district around Crews Hole and Conham, which was where many runners began to flag. 
Through Hanham and Willsbridge, the day began to heat-up and the frequent water stations were needed, even more so through Bitton and  hilly Kelston. 
All of Thornbury’s athletes train on hills, and most are experienced marathon runners, so this caused no undue problems, and it is unlikely that Hopkins even realised there were any hills as he pulled away from Johnstone to finish in three hours 15.14 minutes in 145th place, Johnstone following in three hours 21.05 minutes. 
Paul Thomas was unaffected by a niggle that had concerned him earlier in the week and ran a steady race in three hours 29.04 minutes. 
First Thornbury club lady home was Nancy Harding who sacrificed a few minutes to pull training buddy Jim Williams across the line with her, both recording three hours 44.57 minutes.
Dave Beard held on to them for as long as possible completing in three hours 46.16 minutes. 
Like Williams and Beard, Selina Slater recorded a personal best time of four hours 7.53minutes, despite feeling unwell for the final two miles. 
Other Thornbury runners were Neil Roff, veteran of many marathons, succeeding in three hours 56.30mins, Kevin Arnold who had a bad day to cross the line in four hours 11.42mins when capable of a much quicker time, Hugh McPherson, four hours 16.16mins,Angela Bushell, four hours 19.24mins, Chris Foley, four hours 23.32mins, Judy Mills, four hours 34.13mins, Arthur Renshaw, one of whose 65-year-old knees decided to complain all the way round, five hours 10.24mins, and Gillian Holmes, who was agonisingly three seconds too slow to break six hours.
A special mention must be made of Anthony Yates who, after a cracking start which took him through the halfway mark in fourth position for the club, stopped to help an injured runner in the later stages, so recording only four hours 38.35mins; probably losing 40 minutes due to the delay.
Nick Langridge, who has run marathons far faster than any of these times, chose to support the Stroud Half Marathon which took place on the same day and was rewarded with a great run finishing second in the MV60 category in 1 hour 34.21 minutes. Richard Jackson finished in 1 hour 43.24 minutes.
A late result is due to modesty on the part of local farmer Steve Allen. Taking daughter Rosie to the Brownlee Triathlon event at Harewood House, Leeds in September he thought he might as well enter while he was there. Despite parting company with the bike at the wrong time he completed the 400m swim / 13k bike / 3k run in 57.06 minutes; 7th place overall and 1st in the M45-49 category. Rosie Allen, competing for Yate Tristars was 3rd in her event, beating Dad’s time in 51.23 minutes.
Club members were also out parkrunning at the weekend travelling north to perform at Barnsley (Andi Davies 18.33 and Nicky Davies 25.53 minutes); and south to Southampton (Chris Dawes, 27.23 minutes) as well as the home runs: Garry Slater at Little Stoke, 18.57, and  at Chipping Sodbury Andrew Darton 26.11, running with his son Thomas in only his second full-length, 5k parkrun, and Anne Palmer, 31.39. A special mention goes to Amelia Watkins who took-on her first ever Junior parkrun at Little Stoke on Sunday 25th to finish the 2k course in 15.37 minutes. A great result for a young lady of 6 years who is clearly going to take after both proud, running parents.