Five Inverclyde Athletic Club runners finished 2023 on a high with strong performances at the Valencia Marathon.
After months of hard work, all athletes managed to finish inside three hours.
The best of the bunch was John Sharp, who moved up to fifth in the UK on this year’s marathon list in the men’s over-45 category.
The evergreen runner was just 41 seconds slower than his personal best set two years ago, showing he is as fast as ever, recording a time of 2hrs 30min 34sec. He was more than five minutes quicker than his marathon at the start of the year in Funchal in Portugal.
Next through the line was Al Myers, who ran his fastest marathon in five years despite juggling his training with a newborn child. Al showed signs of recapturing his younger form, stopping his watch in 2:38:53, over 20 minutes quicker than his attempt at the Manchester Marathon in April.
Also rolling back the clock was David Henderson, who ran his second-quickest marathon to date. A year on from his ill-fated attempt at the London Marathon – hitting the wall after deciding to bravely take on the distance with minimal training – he crossed the line in 2:41:41, only running faster in 2016.
His long-time training partner Andrew Harkins also put in one of his best results after overcoming injury troubles. His time of 2:48:56 was his best since 2017. Finally, club captain Sean Gaffney completed the squad, coming in a time of 2:55:03, his best since 2019.