British Runners in the London Marathon

Should be good to see how the Normans get on. Good leg in the Nat 12stage from Andy. Hope Dave is going well as I know he's been suffering with a bit on an injury lately.

Andy Jone should do quite well. Hope he hasn't injured him self skiing over the weekend.

Hope the weather's good.

cullen, riley, lobb, a jones, smith, macfarlane, d norman, leighton, c birchall

Dave Wardle from London Irish (Green and White vest) and myself (Matt Norminton) from Herne Hill (Black and Red Vest) are both looking to break 2:18. I believe Andi Jones is looking to break 2:15 and the Norman brothers are both looking to run in the 2:16/2:17 range I think. Any support along the way would be welcomed!

There's a British Vet called Paul Thompson who is running his first marathon. He won a NYRRR Half-Marathon recently and is looking at 2:26.

Richie Gardiner is looking at sub-2h18... He's in great shape too!

Hey Welshie, tell him to join in with Dave and Myself. The more people on the train, the easier it will be. Cheers, Matt

Welshie wrote:

Richie Gardiner is looking at sub-2h18... He's in great shape too!

Michael Green, a brit living in the US, is running London. I would think he would be aiming for sub-2:20, given his past performances.

best wishes david. have your best day ever.

Michael Green is looking for 2:16/17 and is in good shape.

It says a lot about the state of our distance running when the best we can look forward to is a few blokes running 2:16-2:18's.

well from this post and previous ones it seems we could have 10-12 guys all under 2.18. Obviously not great but certainly an improvement. As was discussed on another thread I think the ECh time is about 2.16 and there are probably a lot of people aiming for that. Hopefully by the time the next Europeans so many people will have run 2.16 that we have to raise the standard to 2.13/4 and so on.

Have to start somewhere!

Hania Harriers hope to have two runners dipping under 3 35

For every "less" talented runner that goes out and runs a 2:18 there is another "more" talented runner that sees that he will have to train hard to stay on top. I believe that as soon as you have a good group of guys running 2:16-2:18 the "more" talented runners are going to start rising to the top. It's a lot less likely that you will have a sub 2:10 man pop up w/out first establishing the crowd around 2:16-2:18.

Distance running IS in trouble in GB at the moment, but I don't think that is ANY reflection on the men that are out there training there arses off...

Nice post BJB and xc04, totally agree.

BJP wrote:

For every "less" talented runner that goes out and runs a 2:18 there is another "more" talented runner that sees that he will have to train hard to stay on top. I believe that as soon as you have a good group of guys running 2:16-2:18 the "more" talented runners are going to start rising to the top. It's a lot less likely that you will have a sub 2:10 man pop up w/out first establishing the crowd around 2:16-2:18.

Distance running IS in trouble in GB at the moment, but I don't think that is ANY reflection on the men that are out there training there arses off...

What ever happened to mark steinle from blackheath harriers he seemed to be britains next great distance hope after running 2:09:17 in london in 2002 he is still ranked 8th on the uk all time lists.

And when he ran 2:09 he went out with Gebre,Tergat,Khannouchi at WR pace for the first half or even longer, this guy had a 2:07-08 in him that day.

If he had it in him he would of run it!!

Mark's still running at club level, here was a 10k from last year, with a few photos too

http://www.bandbhac.org.uk/ted%20pepper%202-05-05.html

HHH wrote:

Dave Wardle from London Irish (Green and White vest) and myself (Matt Norminton) from Herne Hill (Black and Red Vest) are both looking to break 2:18. I believe Andi Jones is looking to break 2:15 and the Norman brothers are both looking to run in the 2:16/2:17 range I think. Any support along the way would be welcomed!

Matt, you really in 2.17 shape?