IT WAS bonanza weekend for athletes from Tavistock Athletic Club with the London and Manchester marathons on the agenda, as well as a trail marathon in the Brecon Beacons.

Many were glued to their TVs and tracking apps on Sunday to watch as eight TAC runners joined over 55,000 who took part in the largest-ever London marathon.

In spite of the unfavourably hot temperatures, some amazing results were achieved with six achieving times under or around 3hrs.

Ben Neale, who took part by achieving a 'championship' place (by gaining a qualifying marathon time over the previous year) ran a storming race, finishing in an amazing 2hr 32min 1s - mixing it with some of the best runners in the country by finishing in 247th place overall and gaining a personal best time for the distance.

Four others fully justified their championship places - Sam Larkham finished in 2:47:51 followed by Nikki Kelly in 2:53:36 (a personal best time and 79th in her FSen category), Holly Fitzgerald in 2:57:06 and Hannah Smith in 3:04:41.

Ed Horn, running for the charity Children with Cancer, just missed a sub-3-hour finish, completing in 3:02:32. Emma Webber achieved her goal of a sub-4-hour finish by 40 seconds and Corin Russell finished in 4:01:19.

The Manchester Marathon, taking place on the same day, brought about similar, tricky temperatures.

Ian Collacott was the only runner from Tavistock - he finished in an excellent time of 3:34:18, running to raise money for the Alzheimer Society.

Thankfully the temperatures were a little lower on the Saturday when TAC's Sarah Holland and Soozie Trice took on a marathon with a difference. The 'Rassus y Bannau' or Beacon Races start in Brecon and traverse the peaks of Brecon Beacons, including Pen y Fan, the highest point in South Wales at 2,907 ft.

Soozie finished the marathon distance in 6:48:28 and Sarah followed home in 7:36:45 - finishing 6th and 15th respectively out of 35 female starters.