The road marathon season has definitely started and last weekend it was the turn of the Brighton marathon. Witham RC has seven runners make the trip down to the south coast – six ladies making their marathon debuts and one gent adding to his marathon total.

Mick Poulter was Witham RC’s first runner home, making it under the finishing banner in 3:53:24 and was well pleased with his run. The ladies were a bit slower, but then again it was their first outing at the longer distance. Becky Barnes had been worried about her knee and made sure it was well strapped but before she left for Brighton – it looks like it held up as Becky was Witham RC’s first lady home with a time of 4:55:52, hopefully raising plenty of funds for the NSPCC. Sarah Dale kept going well over the 26.2 miles and clocked a time of 5:03:41. Paula Edwards was running to raise funds for the Essex and Herts Air Ambulance. she was apprehensive before the start but had a brilliant race to cross the line in 5:05:53. Tracey Denby has been training hard for the past few months and has been racing well, on Sunday she finished her debut marathon in aid of Breakthrough Breast Cancer in 5:08:07. Ann Johnson and Kerry Manning kept each other company around the course, encouraging each other when the going got difficult. Ann was running for Motor Neurone Disease in memory of her father and was over the moon to have finished well in 5:21:00, with Kerry (who suffered an ankle injury around Christmas time that impacted her training) just a second behind in 5:21:01.