28 May 2008 - BOTH HAVEN TEAMS COMPLETE THE EDINBURGH MARATHON TEAM RELAY - Click here for full story.
Stevenage Haven had two teams entered in the Edinburgh Marathon Hairy Haggis Relay event. Both teams completed the marathon with commendable times considering most team members weren't regular runners or even irregular runners!
The relay was split into 4 legs:
Leg 1 - 8.1 miles run by Claire Staddon (volunteer) & Ron Cohen (Finance Officer)
Leg 2 - 5.4 miles run by Zoe Day (HR Assistant & Supported Lodgings Worker) and Jon Follows (Mike's son-in-law)
Leg 3 - 8 miles run by Les Betts (Senior Project Worker) & Jonathan Nash (Mike's son)
Leg 4 - 4.7 miles run by Lynsey O'Donnell (last minute replacement for Neal Faichen - Senior Project Worker) & Mike Nash (Service Development Manager)
Neil Faichen had been struggling with an injury for the 3 weeks before the marathon and unfortunately had to pull out as he wasn't sure he'd even be able to walk the course. We would like to thank Lynsey O'Donnell, a resident of Edinburgh, who stepped in at the last minute to take Neil's place and we would also like to thank Neil's sponsors who have still supported him even though he couldn't run although he did travel to Edinburgh and provided moral support!
Everyone enjoyed the experience of participating in the event which had 10,000 full marathon runners and over 3,000 team relay runners. The team relay runners were also able to run faster than most of the Marathon runners who were pacing themselves over the full 26.2 miles so we enjoyed being able to overtake a lot of runners on each leg providing an unrealistic sense of achievement!!
One thing we learnt while in Edinburgh was how cold the wind can be in May - it was absolutely freezing waiting at the changeover points for the incoming runners to come in - and apparently this year the weather was good - last year's marathon was run in 'Arctic' conditions - we obviously chose the right year!
TO SEE MORE PICTURES CLICK HERE.
The timings for the two teams were as follows:
Stevenage Haven A - R236 - Overall Time 04:01:24 - 388th Place
Claire Staddon - 01:13:49 - 09:07 per mile
Zoe Day - 01:03:17 - 11:43 per mile
Les Betts - 00:59:12 - 07:24 per mile
Lynsey O'Donnell - 00:45:06 - 09:36 per mile
Stevenage Haven B - R471 - Overall Time 03:50:29 - 258th Place
Ron Cohen - 01:17:20 - 09:33 per mile
Jon Follows - 00:49:28 - 09:10 per mile
Jonathan Nash - 01:03:09 - 07:54 per mile
Mike Nash - 00:40:32 - 08:37 per mile
THANKS TO ALL THOSE WHO SPONSORED OUR RUNNERS AND WHO RAISED MONEY FOR THE CONTINUING WORK OF STEVENAGE HAVEN WITH PEOPLE WHO ARE UNFORTUNATE ENOUGH TO FIND THEMSELVES HOMELESS. Thanks also to our visiting supporters - Emily, Karen, Sara, Pam & Neil.
If you haven't sponsored our runners it's not too late for the next few weeks as you can sponsor online BY CLICKING HERE.
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