MARATHON season is well under way now for runners from Tavistock Athletic Club.

In the run up to London marathon next weekend, some runners chose instead to take on two equally prestigious marathons. Club chairman Mark West travelled to run the race of his life on Sunday in the Rotterdam Marathon, completing in a time of 3:00:57. His race management was superb, with a race pace that varied by less than 0.1 seconds per mile over the entire 26.2 miles. Amongst 17,086 runners, he finished in 1,237th place and 47th out of 1,005 in his M50 age category.

A little closer to home, Sunday also saw the running of the Manchester Marathon. Second only to London, it attracted 22,300 runners. Nikki Kelly ran in the Elite Marathon race, achieving a superb time of 2:56:23 in her first marathon and finishing sixth in her FSen category.

In the main race, Adam Holland, a seasoned marathon runner finished in 2:58:28, 190th in his M35 category. Elizabeth Gillam ran a great sub-four-hour race, completing it in 3:39:44. Anna Kelly, running her first marathon, finished in 5:26:13 after a long stretch of dedicated training. Special mention is due to Millie Steel, also running her first marathon at Manchester. She did much of her training with TAC before recently moving to Plymouth. At just 25 years old, she crossed the line in 4:27:51 – a great effort.