One marathon too many for Ellie!

Also on Sunday 26th August, over in the Channel Islands, was the annual Guernsey Marathon. I, Ellie Sutcliffe, took part in this race last year and, to my surprise and delight, won it. It was such a stunning course and so well organised and friendly that I decided to sign up again this year and to go and try and defend my title... oh, the rather nice sum of money I won last year might have also played a small part in luring me back!

This year, however, I knew that the task of winning again would be very tough as I had much stiffer competition in the form of Shona Crombie-Hicks. Shona is a vet 40 athlete from Bourton Road Runners who boasts a marathon PB of 2:38 and has previously represented Scotland at the Commonwealth Games in Melbourne, Austrailia. Last year she won and set a course record at the Jersey Marathon with a 2:53 clocking: 10 whole minutes faster than my winning Guernsey time. On paper she was the favourite. All I could hope was that with a good summer's build up I could chip some more time off my 2:59 PB and give her a decent run for her money (literally!).... er, yeah, didn't quite happen!


To cut a long story short, I came 2nd to Shona, who posted a fantastic new course record time of 2:56. I ran 3:07. Vicky Barret of Jersey came third with 3:19.

For a more detailed account of the event see my own blog site:
http://elliesutcliffe.blogspot.co.uk/

On on to next year when I will try and gain the honours back again... with much better preparation behind me!

Local hero, Lee Merrien, is on official race starter duties at Guernsey