On Sunday, Newport & District Running Club’s Nick Watts took part in his first ever marathon, the 2022 Chester Marathon. Nick’s training over the summer months has been focussed towards this target, and all of the hard work paid off, as he hit his target time. 

The Chester Marathon starts and finishes just outside Chester Racecourse, with sections winding through the city centre, before heading out of the city south into the countryside following local roads. At its furthest point from the start/finish area, the course takes runners to within a few miles of Wrexham, before returning them back northwards towards the Roman city. With over 200m of elevation changes, including a tough hill near the finish, this race tests runners throughout.

Nick with his medal after the race

Nick’s finishing time was 3 hours, 46 minutes, 46 seconds, a time that Nick was really pleased with, and he said afterwards that he really enjoyed the race, particularly how well supported runners were around the course. He finished in 839th position overall, out of a total of more than 2,400 runners who took to the start line.