THE Virgin Money London Marathon returned on Sunday, October 3, with a new October date, and six Launceston Road Runners travelled to the capital to run!

Having trained hard over summer months in heatwaves rather than the usual cooler spring conditions, Matt Haisman, Sarah Worth, Jaine Hynes, Jeanette Johnson, Lavinia Marshall and Kevin Marshall were all ready for the event. After last year’s elite-only race, it was a joy to see the return of this iconic event with the usual mass field of club runners, celebrities and charity fundraisers.

With staggered start times, there were also four different starting points in Greenwich Park in order to help relieve social distancing pressures. The runners followed the traditional route out towards Woolwich, before coming back in and passing the Cutty Sark, down into Rotherhithe, crossing Tower Bridge and racing down Canary Wharf. Having looped around Canary Wharf, the route goes back along the river through Wapping, past Blackfriars and runners then pass the London Eye as they head down Embankment before turning to run along St James’s Park, finishing on The Mall in front of Buckingham Palace.

Conditions were good with very little rain and a lot of sun.

There were personal bests for Jeanette and Kevin with Jeanette being the fastest British lady in the 55-59 age category, a quite brilliant achievement.

The six runners completed the course in the following times: Jeanette Johnson (3:08:35), Kevin Marshall (3:25:49), Jaine Hynes (3:38:09), Sarah Worth (3:50:49), Matt Haisman (5:04:52) Lavinia Marshall (5:10:44).

In addition to the main event, more than 24,000 people globally took part in the Virtual VMLM taking place on thes ame day. Launceston Road Runners members Vicky Holt, Becky Wise, Christian Bungay and Tanya Jarvis all took to the hills around Launceston to run their virtual 26.2 miles on the same day-no mean feat!

Vicky and Becky ran the Treggy 7 route three times, starting at 3am and finishing for breakfast at 9am, and finished in five hours, 54 minutes and 27 seconds, while Christian and Tanya did it in five hours, 29 minutes and one second and four hours, 48 minutes and 26 seconds respectively.

If you fancy getting involved with the club then LRR would love to see you. A new couch-to5K course started yesterday (October 12). Contact the club for further details.