Local Runners Travel To Lisbon For Marathon

A small group of runners from Beverley Athletic Club travelled to Portugal last weekend to compete in the Lisbon Marathon.

Known as the seaside marathon, the course starts in the Estadio 1o Maio and follows an undulating route through the beautiful city centre before dropping down steeply to the coast between 19 and 23 kilometres. This is followed by a flat 8kilometre stretch along the coast road. At 28 kilometres athletes turn around and head back towards the city centre. The final four kilometres to the finish in the stadium are uphill and a severe test of athletes’ stamina.

Julie Donald was the first of the Beverley contingent to finish. She crossed the line in 3:44:08 in eleventh place in her age category. She was followed five minutes later by Lucas Meagor running his sixth marathon this year as part of a series of events to raise money for Cystic Fibrosis.

“The course was much tougher than I’d expected,” commented Meagor afterwards, ”especially the four kilometre constant uphill section towards the finish.”

Debs and Andrew Brant put in strong performances to finish in 4:05:10 and 4:18:26 respectively. Debs was also 30th in her age group.

Amanda Ritchie ran the half-marathon and finished in 1:51:21 while Mark Oglesby completed the 6km mini marathon.

There were 1522 finishers in the marathon and the race was won by Vasco Azevedo in 2:22:03. The first lady was Anabela Tavares in 2:50:19.
Beverley Athletic Club finishing times:

Marathon
Julie Donald 3:44:08; Lucas Meagor 3:48:49; Andrew Brant 4:05:10; Debs Brant 4:18:26

Half-marathon
Amanda Ritchie 1:51:21.

Reported by Kay Farrow