Sara Bird 2.48 England marathon; Stephan Wenk wins Beachy Head

Over the marathon distance, Sarah Bird and Stephan Wenk have followed up the fine 2.28 run by Tom Beedell at Chester recently.

Sara Bird (photo courtesy of Clive Sparkes) won her first international vest a week ago, representing England in the Scotiabank Toronto Waterfront Marathon. After a difficult build-up, and in very cold conditions, she was relatively pleased with her performance, running 2hrs 48mins 45secs for 10th overall in the women's field. Sara earned her honour in running 2:39.55 at the London Marathon in April. Results

Sara reports, "The build up to the race was okay, I have had a few set backs with injuries within the last few months. These particular injuries have occurred within my ankles, with the latest one prior to the race mainly on the ankle bone area."

"Training has been very on and off, when I have not been running, I have been aqua jogging in the pool mostly twice a day. I have only managed to put together 4 weeks worth of training altogether. My longest run overall was only 20 miles which took place 4 weeks prior to the race."

The experience of representing England was great, it would have been so much better if my circumstances were different. If the build up fitness wise went well and if my father had not become ill a few days prior to the race in Toronto, my head would have had a different mindset. For the race itself, I found it tough without having the fitness behind me but I was not going to drop out as I had no reason to, my ankle injury was not affecting me and the thought of my father in hospital who was in much more pain than I was kept me going. I was very happy with the outcome of the performance even though I had these things against me. To run 9 minutes slower than my personal best was satisfying as things could have gone a lot worse."

"I would love to have more opportunities of representing England and I hope that I can continue to prove that I am worthy of these experiences."

Meanwhile, last weekend Stephan Wenk won one of the biggest off-road marathons in the UK, the Beachy Head Marathon, run through the South Downs National Park. Stephan, who hopes to qualify from the European School of Osteopathy in Maidstone next summer, runs a lot of major mountain races in the Alps each summer, but he won this race the hard way, as you can read in his excellent report.