The Abingdon Marathon set off this morning at 9am from Tilsley Park. The Marathon has been run every year since 1982 apart from 2007.
5 miles into the race, at St Helen’s Wharf, the runners passed the River Thames. Katherine Matthews – 418 – of Chepstow Harriers was the eventual winner of the women’s race.

Not far behind were Max and Sarah of Abingdon. Abingdon A.C had a few runners near the front.

The Queen of Hearts was running twice as fast to keep up …

“Well, in our country,” said Alice, still panting a little, “you’d generally get to somewhere else—if you run very fast for a long time, as we’ve been doing.”

“A slow sort of country!” said the Queen. “Now, here, you see, it takes all the running you can do, to keep in the same place. If you want to get somewhere else, you must run at least twice as fast as that!” – Lewis Carroll’s Through the Looking-Glass

At every junction round the course there were marshalls encouraging the runners, and warning runners to keep to the left.

21 miles further on, Paul Fernandez of Abingdon A.C ran back as the winner having run the 26 miles 385 yards in 2 hours 30 minutes and 39 seconds. He overtook the early leaders.

The Abingdon Marathon has many races within the same race, and the winner of the Army Race was 1161. I never got his name.

At many places round the course spectators cheered on the runners. Back at Tilsley Park there was also a man with microphone to gee the runners on over the last stretch. But he also emphasized it was a windy day and difficult running conditions.

The Tilsley Park leaves were glorious.