Kenny Davidson and Simon Hammond were in Kielder on Saturday
for the Dark Skies Marathon (Andrew Dancer – who won the
event in 2017 and the combined Marathon + half marathon double in 2018 – and Colin Williams were also
entered but both have been fighting illness and withdrew).
In a field of over 400 runners Kenny had an absolute storming
race, and finished 6th overall clocking 3:24:32 for the 26.5 mile
course with an elevation of 1,700ft and run at night. Kenny won the M50 prize
by a huge margin, and knocking the best part of half an hour off the M50 course
record in the process! This goes with Kenny’s age group win at Glentress trail
half the month earlier. Huge congrats!
Simon had a solid run too but a dodgy hip came into play in
the last part meant that he unfortunately slowed to a walk near the end, but still finished
in 59th and clocked a still hugely respectable 4:05:55
– well done.
Here’s their comments; Kenny:
Great course, actually really enjoyed the very undulating route and totally
runnable in the dark. blood red sky sunset. Tough final 10k or so.... Friendly bunch all round too
Simon:
Kenny
smashed it! Altho he completely ignored our pre-match game plan about pace that
agreed in the canteen. He was out of sight by the 2nd corner I (wrongly)
thought he'd gone off far too fast and I'd catch him at time point but he
clearly knew what he was doing!! I had really enjoyable 30km rigidly sticking
to my pace until not long after the dam....then my hip started to niggle. It
got worse and worse and I ended up walking/hobbling the last 7km turning the
air blue every couple hundred yards when I tried to set off again. Great route
although last 6 miles were definitely a bit pants....I'd hoped for 3.5 to 4
hours and was on target for about 3hrs 40 until things blew up.
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