Vale quintet shine in London Marathon

In decent running conditions, five of Vale’s finest runners put their months of training behind them and turned out for the main event.

Ben Jackson, who runs in the Vet 40 age category, will undoubtedly be delighted with his finishing time of 3:20:14hrs which is a new personal best, fractionally under 14 minutes better than his time last year.

David Maisey also ran well on his return to running after a break, finishing in 2:47:12, his best time since 2012

Richard Bazeley was another Aylesbury runner to compete and he said: “I started well, detonated badly for a massive positive split but I got there in one piece and the crowds were great at pulling me round.”

Richard completed the race in 3:57:37, while there were also great runs from Charlotte Steptoe, who finished in 3:08:37, her second fastest marathon time, and Alan Roberts (3:37:55) in his 32nd London Marathon.

Congratulations also go to James Davis, an U20 athlete for Vale who won the Ridge Off-Roader 10K in 37:44 at the weekend, beating David McCoy by 18 seconds. Using a different course from last year, this mainly off-road 10K the race started and finished at Bledlow Ridge.