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Brearley shaves minute off marathon best
Paul Gaile, Tracy Denby and Mick Brearley were among the local club runners who set personal bests with outstanding performances in difficult conditions at Sunday's Flora London Marathon.
Besides the superstars, charity runners and celebrities, a host of runners qualify for the London Marathon through club quotas.
St Bede's Athletics Club allocate theirs by lottery. One of this year's three beneficiaries was Brearley, from Eccleshill.
Mick has been running 15 years, and this was his eighth marathon in ten years.
Last year at London, Mick broke the elusive three-hour barrier, and, despite the difficult conditions, recorded a new personal best at this year's race.
He explained: "The start was a mess. I was at the green start, with the good club runners, but we were behind loads of celebrities, particularly the Maasai warriors, and had to tiptoe round them all.
"I got angry and it took five miles to get on to the right pace.
"At halfway I was bang on course: an hour and 28 minutes. Then my claim to fame - picked up a water bottle at halfway and handed it round, to ... rower, James Cracknell.
"It was going great until the rain started whamming down. Miles through puddles got me really cold.
"Then the hamstrings started cramping. At 22 they got really tight, so I stopped to stretch them. The crowd urged me on, shouting Come on, you can do it!'
"Then the hams really started seizing up at 24 miles, so I stopped again.
"Every mile was consistent and on target; it was just the two stops which stopped me breaking 2hr 55min, which had been my aim. But how can you be disappointed when 2hr 58min 23sec is nearly a minute off your best?"
Clubmate Denby was more distraught at missing her 3hr 30min target.
She was on course until 24 miles but lost four minutes in the last two miles.
She, too, was consoled by smashing her previous best.
Pudsey Pacers' Gaile showed what can be achieved by stopping smoking - smashing his PB to attain a top-500 place in 2hr 48min.
2:53pm Tuesday 15th April 2008
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