Had a fantastic time running the Chester Marathon last weekend.

I had entered a couple of months back, torn between Chester or Dublin (which is at the end of October) for an Autumn marathon. I chose Chester as it is local (so no hotels to book, transport to sort out etc), pretty flat and lovely scenery …. I wasn’t disappointed, and the weather was fantastic too. An added bonus was the availability of Lucozade Sport at every other drinks station.

My last 3 marathons have all been abroad and over 4 hours, so I was determined to see if I could get back under the 4 hour mark. Long training runs have been a bit tricky to fit in at times, with Summer hols and the Summer Series races. This meant for example running a few extra miles along the canal after the Bollington Nostalgia race, running around Tittesworth Reservoir (5 miles) after the Meerbrook 15, and running home (7 miles) after the Hatters Half-Marathon. I was spotted by Tony near Poynton after the Hatters HM, who’s inspirational comment was ‘you looked to be struggling’ …. he was right!!

The marathon route is a loop of the city before heading south west into Wales, through some gorgeous Cheshire villages (such as Farndon – the venue for Race 21 of the Summer Series) before returning alongside the River Dee and finishing at the Racecourse.

There is also a Metric marathon (26k), which starts just over an hour after the traditional marathon, but joins up to follow the same route back into the city.

Anyway I had a great race, reaching half-way at 1:49:30 and going on to finish in 3:55:06.

Well done too to Andrew Whittingham who finished 29th overall in 2:50:07 and won the MV45 age category.