Birmingham Half Marathon Sunday October 23rd, 2011

The sun shone for the Birmingham half marathon on Sunday and a band of Hatton Darts travelled to compete. The race was ran under the banner of the ‘Great Run Series’ for the first time which brings it together with the Great North Run, Great South Run and Great Manchester Run to name but a few. We had the honour of running behind the Ethiopian world class athlete Haile Gebrselassie who won the race in a time of 61 minutes 29 seconds. Not too far behind was the Charnwood athlete Gemma Steel, the female winner in a time of 72 minutes 21 seconds.
The 13.1 mile road course started near Victoria square the headed out towards Bourneville before looping back towards Cannon Hill Park. The park provided a serene section just before a horrid climb back up to the city centre and a Broad Street finish.

Gordy Smith was the first Dart home in 56th place in a time of 1:18:52 (3rd place V40). Next was Phillip Dutton in 598th place in a time of 1:33:11.
He was closely followed by the trio of Chris Matthews 1:35:52, Richard Nash 1:35:53 and Tim Matthews 1:36:20. A few minutes later Mark Slade
1:40:00 and Paul Smith 1:41:42 joined then all at the crowded finish.
The final two darts were not too far behind and completed the well supported course in easily under two hours, Mark Sunley 1:50:51 and Alison Collins 1:50:54.
Running for Washland Women (her first claim club) Ruth Matthews gave a solid run and enjoyed a good time by finishing in 2:20:14.