Monday 25 March 2019

Kielder Dark Skies Marathon 2019


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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