Marathon day Sunday April 26th ! What a day!
Phab had 222 Golden Bond runners and 21 own place runners taking part in the Flora London Marathon 2009. The event was significant as it was the last year that Flora were sponsoring the London Marathon, 2010 being sponsored for the first time by Virgin.
Once again our very colourful Phabkids vests were easy to spot as the runners ran the
26.2 mile marathon course. We were fortunate to have a group of supporters from Chichester Phab Club and a group from Epsom & Ewell Phab Club on the course giving wonderful encouragement to the Phabkids runners. From feedback received after the event it is clear that en route support is very much needed and valued by our runners and it is hoped that for the 2010 event more Phab Clubs will be on the course giving their encouragement to the runners who will be raising sponsorship for Phab. It is a great day out!
We were privileged once again to have the use of the Storeyard in St James Park as our post-race meeting point for runners and their families. Runners were welcomed by Martin Holdsworth, Chief Officer of Phab, as they arrived at the Storeyard and later on in the afternoon Ed Stewart, President of Phab was there mingling with our successful runners. Most runners, who made use of the facilities at the Storeyard, had their photograph taken with their medals by Angela and Mick Formby, whose help on the day is invaluable. For the second consecutive year Phab were able to offer post-race massage by a team of massage therapists from the Southern School of Massage who worked extremely hard to ease aching muscles.
Our first male Golden Bond runner over the finish line was Lewis Chalk in the very respectable time of 3.15.43 and our first female Golden Bond runner home was Katherine Rees in a time of 3.40.12. Paul Miller, an own place runner who has run several times for Phab, was our first male runner over the finish line in a time of 2.36.11. Ruth Richards, who was running her sixth consecutive Flora London Marathon for Phab, was once again our first lady own-place runner home in a time of 3.44.44.
Our grateful appreciation goes to all our Phab runners, who devoted so much time, energy and effort in running the marathon and raising sponsorship. They achieved so much for Phab but on a personal level they should be proud of their huge achievement in completing the Flora London Marathon.
Madeleine Fry,
PhabKids Marathon Co-Ordinator
