Marathon best helps Langley clock up another top-50 finish at Brighton

Spa Striders Harx Kalsi, Tracey Murphy, Jude Baum and Caroline Whitehouse get ready for the Brighton Marathon with former Strider Rachel Eastaff, centre.

Since its inception in 2010, the Tim Hutchings-directed event has grown rapidly to become one of the premier UK marathons and one of the largest road races in the country with more than 9,000 taking part.

The 26.2-mile race is held on a relatively flat course with the most significant climb in the first mile and with mild undulations for the opening ten miles before the course descends slightly and becomes ‘pancake flat’ for the second half.

Langley, 31, had posted top-50 finishes in both the Ashby 20 and Tunbridge Wells Half Marathon this year and he maintained the sequence by coming home 35th at Brighton in a personal best time of 2:54:49.

Hartwig Busch was the next Strider in 307th place in 3:17:52 followed by Tim Stooks (3:26:01), Charlotte Everard (3:31:31, 50th lady), Andy Roach (3:33:43, PB) and Justin Mallard (3:35:18).

Caroline Whitehouse, fresh from her Paris PB the previous week, finished in 3:50:02, with Jude Baum producing an excellent FV55 time of 3:54:32.

Tracey Murphy (3:57:27)and Harki Kalsi (4:03:59, PB) completed the Striders tournout.

Kenilworth Runners’ Martin suffered badly in the final 12k, finishing 7,716th in 5:31:29.

Kenyan runners Dominic Kangor and Eunice Kales set course records of 2:10:46 and 2:28:50 to win the men’s and women’s races, respectively.

Three members of Kenilworth Runners headed to Eastnor Castle Deer Park in the foothills of the Malverns, near the Herefordshire town of Ledbury, to take part in The Magnificent Eastnor Castle 7 mile multi-terrain race.

Richard Steel, who attended the previous day’s National Road relays as standby, ran well to finish in 50:36.

He was followed by fellow relay cover Tom Dable, who came home in 66:50. Pauline Dable, who ran in the relays, showed no ill effects, finishing in 80:57.