London Marathon: Andy Berry and Darren Evans | News – Cornish & Devon Post
London Marathon: Andy Berry and Darren Evans | News Cornish & Devon Post
Andy Berry: SOUTH Petherwin’s Andy Berry battled injuries in both knees to complete the London Marathon.
Andy Berry:
SOUTH Petherwin’s Andy Berry battled injuries in both knees to complete the London Marathon.
Andy, who is part of Launceston Road Runners, chose to raise money for Whizz-Kidz, a charity which provides disabled children with the essential wheelchairs and other mobility equipment they need to lead fun and active childhoods.
Andy said: “I went up there having secured well over £2,300 for Whizz-Kidz. I chose to run for them because I feel every child deserves the same opportunities and providing mobility equipment for them gives the children independence etc.
“This was really important to me and gave me the confidence to keep going etc and the £2,300 soon to be at least £2,600 has come from online donations from friends, family and local residents, collections at Holsworthy Market and from sale of runner bean plants with my daughter Jess where we’ve sold over 500 plants.”
But preparations weren’t easy.
Andy said: “I had only managed around seven weeks of training out of the 16-week plan given to me by Kevin Marshall (Launceston Road Runners), due to various injuries, mainly both knees.
“I went up with lots of rock tape on and the pain kicked in just after mile one, but the crowd and atmosphere was amazing and definitely pulled me through. I saw my son, Jimmy, at least three times (he was looked after by my best mate also called Jimmy, as my wife had taken our daughter and her fellow U12 Launceston Girls Hockey team to Bristol the same day for the regional hockey finals where they came a very respectable fourth in their pool and only conceded three goals in six games, so well done them as well).
“The best time was at mile 23 where I was starting to feel real pain and hadn’t seen both Jimmys since Tower Bridge (12 miles) and definitely needed that high five and encouragement. I was hoping to break five hours and did that by coming in, in four hours and 54 minutes. I slowed down the last two miles purely to absorb the crowd and it definitely gave me goose pimples and for anyone wanting to give it a go, you must, it is absolutely amazing. It’s very well organised, crowds of people all the way.
“Two tips are to definitely put your name on your shirt/vest and that really helps to keep the legs going as every ten seconds you have a “come on Andy, you can do it etc” and secondly don’t drink every at every water station as you spend around half an hour of running time visiting the gents on the course.”
Andy has no plans to run such a distance again.
He said: “I would like to thank everyone who has sponsored me and my charity, Whizz-Kidz. It will definitely be my first and last marathon as I want to recover from the knee injury and concentrate on smaller distance races.
“Someone from the running club said to me back in January when I started to get injuries — ‘you are a winner if you make it to the start line’ — he was spot on.”
Darren Evans:
LAUNCESTON Road Runner and local postman Darren Evans competed in his first London Marathon for five years and raised over £2,000 for Cancer Research UK.
He said: “I started by getting one of the two running club ballot places back in November. I last ran it in 2014 for Lifton Community Centre and that was my very first marathon in a time of three hours and 24. Since then I have done the Cornish Marathon four times and Taunton and Yeovil marathons with a PB of 3:11.
Since 2014 I have never succeeded in getting back into London through the ballot and that’s why I was so happy getting the club position. My long time personal goal has always been to run a marathon under three hours and this year my aim was to get 2:59:59.
Darren (pictured) initially wasn’t sure who to raise money for, but a couple of stories from work made him to decide to go with Cancer Research UK.
He said: “I am a local postman and my job helps me keep fit daily. When I got the place I knew I’d like to raise money for a good cause, and a retired postman Roger Jewell suggested Cancer Research UK as he’d just overcome a cancer scare himself, and unfortunately another post lady Rachel also diagnosed with breast cancer, so this was a cause close to a lot of friends and family’s home life. I initially set a target of £250 but through my amazing customers out on my deliveries and friends and family, my total has surpassed £2,000.”
Running a marathon in under three hours means you have to average under seven-minute miles throughout, and in a bid to ensure he could achieve it, Darren prepared properly.
He said: “I started training on Christmas Day and designed my own 18-week training programme, running four or five times a week, averaging 40-50 miles a week.”
Reflecting on the day itself, Darren said: “On the morning of the race I met with another local runner Ed Horn, and we got the train together to Blackfriars taking in the infectious atmosphere on the train and the walk up onto Greenwich green.
“I started at the blue start behind the elite men’s and the tension was amazing but slightly nerveracking waiting for Andy Murray to start us all off. The Tower Bridge section just before half way is like no crowd I’ve ever seen, goosebumps head to toes waving and absorbing the chants and cheers. It really is like no other race out there, thousands upon thousands of people cheering along the entire 26.2-mile route.
“Come the 25-mile mark using my watch, I realised I had ten minutes to run the last 1.2 miles and to my surprise and amazement I finished under my goal in a time of 2:57:48, knocking 13 minutes off my previous best time and also grabbing a ‘good for age’ time for next year. Next year I’m going to attempt the Guinness World Record for fastest marathon dressed as a postman, so watch this space.”