The club were very proud to have five members compete in and finish the 2018 London Marathon, which took place on Sunday 22nd April. Tom, Philip, Heidi, Nitin and James did themselves, the club and the spirit of running proud with their performances.

This year’s race was the hottest on record, with the temperatures on the course reaching in to the high 20s. While the weather attracted brought out the crowds to provide fantastic support and an truly amazing atmosphere, it also meant runners may have had to abandon any expectations they have had of desired finishing times just a few weeks after training in snow!

At the end of the day however the sport of running won out. Over £45 million has been raised by the event so far, including £1.3m for the official charity of the 2018 event, the Teenage Cancer Trust. There were many heroic efforts for charity, such as firefighters from the London Fire Brigade running in full gear to raise funds for those affected by the Grenfell Tower fire. Many, many others ran for world records and other personal causes, our own club members notwithstanding.

While the headlines were dominated by the winners – Eliud Kipchoge, Vivian Cheruiyot, David Weir, Madison de Rozario and Mo Farah, who broke the British marathon record, we would also like to give a special mention to our neighbour club West End’s Joanna Male, who finished 10th out of all club women with a truly outstanding time of 2:56:34.

We must also mention the sad news of Matt Campbell, who tragically died while running the race. Members of the club have joined thousands of others to the ‘Finish for Matt’ campaign, pledging to complete the race for him with a 3.7 mile run and donating to his fundraising page Click here.

The club hopes to be proudly represented again in next year’s race. In addition to our allocated place through England Athletics many of our runners will hope to achieve or have achieved ‘Good For Age’ entry. For the rest of us we will cross our fingers like thousands and thousands of others and enter the public ballot entry system. No matter what happens the London Marathon continues to be an rousing testament to the power of running. Keep running and keep inspiring!