19th October 2025

Two for the price of one – reports from Kate W and Lucy B

Abingdon, where is that? Read on!

This was my first thought when I received an email following Manchester Marathon to say I had qualified for the England Athletics Age Group Masters Representative Marathon against Wales! I had qualified along with Lucy Broom and Cal Lloyd on a very hot day in Manchester! Everyone asked the same question, Abingdon, where is that!

Without knowing Lucy and I had the same goals this year. The only difference is in our ages! When I turned 70 in November I decided to aim to qualify for England Athletic Age group masters at 10k, half marathon and the Marathon. I have run for England in the marathon three times already but not the other distances. I qualified for the 10k a week after my 70th birthday and for the half marathon in Bristol earlier this year. Manchester obviously was the qualifier for Abingdon. I am 71 next week so, hurrah, goal achieved!

I found out where Abingdon was during the summer when I did a stop off on my way to the IoW to explore hotels and the Tilsley Park Sport centre so that I was sure where I was going to be running. Tilsley Park Sport centre is wonderful and offers a whole range of opportunities for the local community, track, long jump, high jump, numerous playing pitches and a very nice club house. Lots of parking, changing rooms, showers. Also, very well used by the local community and schools. The start and finish of the race would be here, using the track for the first and last lap of the race. Abingdon is worth a visit if you are ever near by.

Marathon training started at the same time as I got more than I bargained for at the Newcastle England Masters 10k in early July. I won’t dwell too much on Achilles Tendinopathy other than to say the timing was not good. But taking is slowly and being patient paid off and by race day I was ready to run a marathon. My husband, son and daughter were with me so I had a cheer crew.

On a cool but dry Sunday morning (19th October) I met up with Lucy and Cal at the Sport Centre. We did a photo shoot for England Masters. Then it was time to head for the track. This is a smaller race than I am used to with only 1200 runners. It did have a very large numbers of very helpful and friendly volunteers and it was extremely well organised.

We started on time, just as the weather decided to be slightly damp. Lucy and Cal were further to the front than me, at this point I had decided not to set off too soon and risk upsetting the Achilles. Today was about finishing, improving my Manchester Marathon time and getting a podium finish for England Masters. Not much then! Except that British Masters Athletics were also hosting their Marathon Championship and I had registered my interest in that as well.

There were a lot of England Masters running, this was great as we are all very encouraging towards each other. Wearing the back bib with your age on it is great as people who do pass will always give good luck messages (nicely I passed some of these same runners further on!).
The course was fairly flat, elevation gain 394 feet. The race starts on the track then heads into Abingdon before starting a lap around three villages which you run round twice before heading back to the sports centre for a last lap round the track.
The race is really well marshalled and well supported in each village, there were parts where it was just the runners. Not all roads were closed but runners always had priority and cars were held up for us at junctions and roundabouts. This was really well organised. Much of the race was on pavements with a small section through the woods on a trail path. There were water stations every 3 miles and the encouragement at each of these was amazing. There was a fruit station and a couple of stations offering sport drinks (which I avoided as I had no idea what was in them and if they would suit me, water is fine. Don’t do anything new on race day!)
It started to drizzle a bit at the start but nothing too heavy. It did start to rain later on but I wasn’t that aware of it, in fact the temperature felt good. If I had not seen someone stop, take a back pack off and put on a long sleeved top I may not have been that aware of the rain, I was just focusing on my running, checking my form and staying steady. When I finished I realised I was wet but it clearly hadn’t affected me.
It was lovely to hear my family shouting out “Come on Strider” which was helpful as a lot of spectators were shouting “Come on Kate” or “Come on England” so I knew this was for me! My daughter shouts “that’s my Mum” and that gives me a huge boost as I can hear the pride in her voice!

We were made aware that the lead runners were about to overtake us on their second lap. What a boost that was! Many of the front runners were also wearing England Vests and it was wonderful that they found time to give support as they passed. The best was just after I had seen Rosie who screaming ‘that’s my mum, that’s my mum!’ As I run past her, only for the shout to be taken up by one of the front runners, ‘Come on Mum, looking good!’

I got to the track and my only thought was, I am near the finish, I am going to do this! and as I ran under the gantry having heard Rosie screaming ‘that’s my mum, I am so proud of her!’ I heard the announcer saying ‘Here we have Kate Waddicor, Steel City Striders, completing her 30th marathon’.

Good to have Rosie and Tom at the finish to help me get my bag, provide the warm clothes, give me food and steer me towards the England Athletics and British Athletics coaches. I was absolutely delighted to be awarded a trophy for second from England Athletics in the England/Wales international event and a medal for second from BMAF. The actual race medal is also rather nice! I set myself a bronze, silver and gold aim. I achieved silver – total silver day for me then! Overall I think England won the International race against Wales but I am not completely sure! I had nipped into a porta loo mile 20 but that only added a minute on to my time. My pace was reasonably consistent to mile 24. I was 10 minutes faster than Manchester and I beat my own SCS Club Championship record! I have analysed the last few miles of the race and know I could not have got my own gold plan and I could not have come first (not being defeatist but it helps to know the outcome would be the same but just with a slightly better time. And it is always good to have something to aim for if there is another marathon on the horizon!)
It was great finishing on the track as there was a lot of support! This is a race I would not have considered if it had not been the EA representative race but I enjoyed it and it was good not to be in a race with many thousands running for a change. I would describe it a runners race, no fancy dress.

And the answer is – Just outside Oxford!

Lucy’s experience
My running goal for my 50’s was to qualify for England at the three possible distances – 10k, half and full marathon.  Qualifying for Abingdon completed the set by the age of 51. Goal achieved!

When Cal Lloyd (HRRC) and I realised we had qualified, on the way home from Manchester in April; our excitement was somewhat tempered by learning that the England v Wales representative race would be in October. 6 months away! Neither of us wanted to get back on the marathon bus over the summer and our narrative became one of “We’ll just jog round and enjoy the experience!”.  But train we did, and while my average mileage was lower than for Manchester, I still put in some good sessions, and my running felt good. I felt pretty relaxed in the lead up too.  With 6 marathons under my belt, all much enjoyed and with no ‘bonking’, it seemed that what I was doing was working.

The whole marathon weekend was joyful. The shared journey down and hotel stay with Cal (eating our vats of pasta watching Strictly); meeting up with Kate before the race; the England and Wales photoshoot (gets me every time!); the camaraderie with the other masters runners. During the race, we had amazing, enthusiastic support from Cal’s school friends, who had descended on Abingdon from various parts of the country; and also our very own Andy Buck, who happened to be in Abingdon, and cycled alongside us at points, with much appreciated words of encouragement. Thank you Andy!

My race: I went out a bit quick with all the excitement and had a brief mental wobble at halfway, when my pace slowed. But I pressed on, always smiling to trick my body. Then, around mile 18, a gift… I fell into step with another runner who came up next to me. We ended up running together for most of the last 8 miles. He told me that I was definitely pacing him, and this gave me a (helpful) sense of responsibility to keep the pace going for both of us! The rhythm of our feet hitting the ground at the same time was metronomic and motivating, and I felt like we were flying. Of course ‘flying’ at the end of a marathon is relative, and this feeling was helped by the fact that we were now overtaking a number of runners who had slowed down. Even so, my two quickest miles were miles 22 and 24.

I absolutely loved the last 6 miles! I grinned wildly at everyone, punched the air, whooped, and enjoyed the occasion.  I was really pleased with my time. Quicker than Manchester, and my 3rd fastest out of 7 marathons. For Cal, a marathon pb and a bronze medal for 3rd England/Wales F50! For me, 5th F50 and a bronze medal in the British Masters Marathon Championships!
The icing on the cake for us was a lively late lunch with Cal’s school friends, who gave us a standing ovation as we walked across a packed restaurant! At the end, the waiting staff surprised us with firework-topped desserts for our achievements. We felt like celebs! An unforgettable weekend.

First woman was Louise Flynn in 2:46:41 , first man was Tom Hollis in 2:29:23

There were 1016 finishers

Strider results