Lyneham pair complete marathon together
26th April 2009
Two RAF Officers based at RAF Lyneham completed the London Marathon in identical times of 4 hours 21 mins and 39 seconds in demanding conditions on the 26.2 mile capital circuit. Congratulations to you both  Louise Daly and Mark Colebourn. They were joined by Mark's brother-in-law, Bryn Williams, a Tornado navigator, who is stationed at RAF Lossiemouth in Morayshire. All three crossed the finishing line with the same recorded time.

Thousands of runners - including celebrities and charity fundraisers - took part in this year's London Marathon. About 35,000 runners entered the race, which is expected to raise millions of pounds for charities. Irina Mikitenko of Germany won the women's title ahead of Briton Mara Yamauchi, while Kenyan runner Sammy Wanjiru took the elite men's title.

The 26.2 mile race began in warm and bright conditions, with temperatures of 12°C. That had risen to 16°C by 11 o'clock, while tail-end runners struggled with temperatures in the high-teens throughout the afternoon.

Louise, originally from Ipswich, Suffolk, competed the race in an attempt to ensure she completes the momentous task before she reaches 30 years old. Her time was a remarkable achievement finishing 15,820 overall and the 3297 fastest women. Her average pace was 9.58 min's per mile and 6.12 mins per kilometre. Mark's finishing position was 15,815 overall, sharing the same time as nine other racers.

Both Louise and Mark recorded split times as follows: 5 kms - 0.29.47; 10kms - 1.00.32; 15kms - 1.31.14; 20kms - 2.01.52; Half way - 2.08.43; 25 kms - 2.33.04; 30kms 3.04.31; 35kms - 3.36.03; 40kms - 4.07.27 and finish - 4.21.39.

By 7pm this evening 35,306 had finished after Sir Chris Hoy had set 35,747 on their way from Greenwich this morning, the second largest field in London Marathon history.

Mark had hoped to complete his first marathon in under 4 hrs and Louise in under 4.30.  However, during their final training run on Thursday, Mark proposed that he would run with Louise if she agreed that they would do another marathon in 2010. Louise said: “I wanted to run the marathon with Mark but I knew that he is too competitive and it wouldn’t be fair to hold him back.  So when he said that he would run with me if I promised that we would do another one next year, I agreed.”

Mark commented: “We had done all of our training together and I knew that Louise was not looking forward to running by herself.  Bryn was also running for RAFA and he had been really unwell the week prior to the Marathon so I suggested that the 3 of us run together.  However, the agreement was that Louise and I will do another marathon – maybe New York or Boston – when I will aim for my sub-4 hr time.”

He continued: “The race was great, although the weather was better suited to the spectators than the runners.”

Louise said: “I really enjoyed the day and definitely feel that I have earned the ‘London Marathon tick’…even though it looks like I will be running one more Marathon next year.  We looked at the race results on Monday and realised that I was the 30th Louise to cross the finish line – very fitting considering the fact that I wanted to run the Marathon before turning 30!  Mark was the 347th Mark out of the 750 Marks who ran!” 

The RAF Officers are raising money for the RAFA which is the national charity designated to helping serving and ex serving RAF personnel and their dependants who find themselves in need. This includes veterans from WW2 to those currently serving in Iraq and Afghanistan.  Prior to the race they had received £ 2,467.00 online sponsorship, over 75% of their planned £3000 target. But money is still being pledged and they have topped £ 2,532.00. For all their efforts, if you would like to add to their target money you can still pledge a donation to Louise and Mark, visit their fundraising page at www.justgiving.com/louiseandmark

Flight Lieutenant Louise Daly has worked at Lyneham since June 2008 as the Media Communications Officer while Flight Lieutenant Mark Colebourn has been the Physical Education Officer at the Station since April 2008. 

Related Information:
30 good reasons to run 26 miles more..