EXPERIENCED Wells City Harrier Clare Prosser (pictured right) gave the inaugural Bristol to Bath marathon a west gloss as she finished the clear winner of the women’s race.
Remarkably Prosser, 43, smashed her personal best over a course that was thought to be not to be particularly helpful for fast times with some big climbs in the second half.
Prosser’s previous PB of 2:55.58 was set last year in Jersey but her win yesterday continues her excellent form this year which had already seen ner notch up eight wins from events as diverse as the Wells 10k to the Roseland Trail 32 miles challenge in Cornwall.
It is also worth noting that the previous Sunday Prosser won the Exmoor Stagger 15.1 miles multi terrain race so the lady clearly has fantastic powers of recovery!
Ultra specialist Adam Holland, who at the start of the month ran a persona best of 2:28.29 in the Chester Marathon, won a competitive men’s race finishing just 46 seconds ahead of Salford Harriers’ Elly Tauras.
It was Holland’s eighth marathon of the year, the slowest of which was the Good Friday multi terrain event in Stratford-upon-Avon in April.
To underline what was a decent quality of the field the leading 41 runners all broke three hours. Top local club runner was John Rooney of Nailsea Running Club in a personal best time of 2:45.13, carving over five minutes off his previous best set in London last year.
Andrew Harrison of Great Western Runners was sixth and top veteran over 50 in 2:47.10.
The final finisher in 4,128 place was M50 veteran George Ross in a time of 7:05.188.
Sanlan Bristol to Bath marathon – men: 1 Adam Holland (Notfast) 2:31.29; 2 Elly Taurus (Salford) 2:32.15; 3 Charles Houston (Imperial College) 2:42.04; 4 John Rooney (Nailsea RC) 2:45.13; 5 Matthew Clark (M40) 2:46.25; 6 Andrew Harrison (GWR, M50) 2:47.10.
LOCAL: 9 Stuart Henderson (TBAC, M40 2nd) 2:49.18; 13Scott Watkins (B&W) 2:50.54; 17 Jacob Hayes (Bitt RR, M40 3rd) 2:53.48; 18 Seb Cotton (Bad Tri) 2:54.35; 24 Brian Robb (Bitt RR) 2:55.25; 41 Alexander Whittaker (B&W) 2:59.45;
Women: 1 Clare Prosser (Wells, W40) 2:52.50 2 Elinor Phillips (Lliswerry) 2:55.11; 3 Bex Gwynne-Jones 3:00.57.