V50 Nick Gaskell entred the Abingdon Marathon run on Sunday October 22nd after wrestling with a few niggles in the final month of preparation as he told the Club when speaking to us “to be honest I’d been quiet away 4 weeks ago I thought I wouldn’t do it as I picked up some niggles and just thought nothing worse than thinking of running 26miles I was really chuffed with my time as you rightly know a niggle can knock you off track especially at a key moment in the build up . Back now to sensible shorter races for a good bit I’ll Defo do another marathon as I do like the training“. In the event – the race featuring nearly 750 runners – Nick already ranked 15th in the National Rankings, had an excellent race, finishing in the top 20 with a time of 2hr 41.28 (20th) and the 1st V50. (RESULTS).

Nick Gaskell

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The same weekend, Helen Leigh was selected to compete at International Mountain Running Relay Race held in Italy for the Snowdon race team. (RESULTS). Competing for the Snowdon Race Team A Helen had a good run finishing 23rd overall in a time of 26.50.55 and told us after the race was over that “After a late selection for Trofeo Vanoni relay race in Italy, I was extremely excited to represent the Snowdon race team amongst the other international athletes. My first race abroad was such an amazing experience. The whole town comes out to support the steep, short, fast and furious racing which was in a relay format this year. My team mate Caroline Lambert was extremely fast so I tried hard not to let her down despite the strong field. I held my own and ran an okay time to finish 6th team winning a bunch of euros and a lot of wine! I will definitely do this race again and Italy is my new favourite place!”

Helen Leigh

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