Last Sunday, Newport & District Running Club was represented by six runners in the Manchester Marathon, one of the country’s most popular Marathon distance races. Starting and finishing in Salford, the course takes runners on a loop around the Greater Manchester area, including visits to Stretford, Altrincham, Sale, Timperley and Manchester city centre. Newport’s Jon Pierce described the race as “A great run, well organised, with great support and perfect weather.”

Jon Pierce gives Manchester Marathon the thumbs up!

Lauren Turley was the first Novaportan runner to finish, beating the 3-and-a-half hour mark with her time of 3 hours, 29 minutes, 41 seconds, which placed her 3,985th overall, in a field of over 18,000 runners. Andrew Wilmot was next, taking 5,052nd place in a time of 3:37:54, just in front of Jon Pierce, who was 5,393rd with his time of 3:40:26. John Taylor was 9,383rd in 4:04:06, whilst Sheryl Gray took 11,404th position in a time of 4:20:17. Annabel Bolton rounded out the Newport contingent in 13,534th place, stopping the clock at 4:39:27.