Peterborough and Nene Valley Athletics Club
2014
NVH’s Philippa Taylor and Aaron Scott, who runs second-claim for the club, both recorded fifth place finishing spots in the Manchester marathon on Sunday.

Manchester Marathon

06/04/2014
NVH’s Philippa Taylor and Aaron Scott, who runs second-claim for the club, both recorded fifth place finishing spots in the Manchester marathon on Sunday.

Scott was aiming for the European Championships’ qualifying time of 2:15.30, but a stitch with just five miles to go put paid to that goal. Nevertheless, he crossed the line in fifth in a new personal best (PB) of 2:22.27.

Stamford-based Scott said: “I am obviously disappointed to miss an opportunity to qualify for a major championships, but I can take heart from knowing that I was on pace to hit the time until the stitch at mile 21. I’m still not sure what caused it, but it made me stop for a good minute or so and contemplate giving up. However, after realising it would be an awful five mile walk back, I managed to get running again, albeit slowly, and still squeezed out a five second PB.” It is worth noting that Scott’s time puts him fifth in the UK rankings for the marathon distance so far this year.

Taylor, also from Stamford, continued her seemingly endless impressive form when she ran her fastest ever marathon in 2:48.44, placing her fifth woman and first V45 in a highly competitive field.
She said: “I was very happy to get a PB at Manchester. 2:48 was exactly the time I was training for and hoping to achieve as I've been close to it in the past. I found it very tough and I can't say that I enjoyed much of it! However, that time puts me comfortably at the top of my age group rankings in the UK this year, and 9th in the all time V45's for the marathon. But I now need to think about the 100k ultra I'm doing in early May, as part of the England team. That will make the marathon seem short!”