London Marathon 2006-Preview

London 2005 - Fred Flintstone does a PB with 4-04 Yes-you can enjoy running!

The final deadlines for entries into next year’s Flora London Marathon has passed. Individual entries had to be received by Friday 21st and Club entries by Friday 28th October and there are four runners from Richmond and Zetland Harriers amongst a lot of people with their fingers crossed. The Harriers hope to have eleven runners toe the line at Greenwich next April and seven of this number are assured of their places. Jon Orange and Rachel Ross Russell will both be amongst the AAA Championship entries; Shaun Purkiss, Mike Brooks and Sarah Gregory have qualified as good for age (GFA) based on previous performances and both Colin Sewell and Grete Buck will take up places deferred from 2005 due to injury. The four runners in the ballot are Ian Hepworth, Tony Hewson, Ian Scott and Louise Foster and, whilst they hope to be lucky first time around, they have a safety net in the two assured Club places before they have to consider the charity route.

The Serious Squad - Ian, Rachael and Shaun are planning to run London 2006

Club training nights have changed: gone are the two weekly speed sessions on the track, replaced by hill repetitions, longer fartlek runs and emphasis on distance as runners start to increase their mileage. The Harriers will be incorporating competition into their training - there are another five NYSD X-C League fixtures, Veteran X-C Championships for some and County, Northern and National X-C Championships for all, and probably both a 10K and Half Marathon as warm-up races - and all are optimistic that by Sunday 23rd April they’ll be in the best shape possible. Another important spin-off from this changed training regime is the opportunity for some of the younger, stronger runners to join the sessions and build their stamina so that if the talent is there, when the talk turns to London 2012, they’ll have as good a shot as anybody.