ANTRIM COAST HALF MARATHON

Lily Partridge took the chance to remind the London Marathon field that she has retained her form during lock down, winning theAntrim Coast Half Marathon in 71:36. -  an all-comer's record for Northern Ireland, close to her January time of 71:31 in Seville. That said, it's still a minute off her PB from 2015 and to get the Olympic selectors paying attention in the UK she'll probably need to run a 2:25 ish in London which would be a 4 minute PB over the marathon (even though it's not the official selection race this year).

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We did a race! â–¡â–¡â–¡ So great to be back racing and grateful to the awesome team @antrimcoasthalfmarathon for ensuring this event went ahead! Glad to get the win, course record & apparently the all comers record for the fastest ever womens HM run on irish soil in the process. Feeling really good ahead of @londonmarathon in 3 weeks time so time to recover and back to work for last little bit â–¡â–¡ â–¡ @keithmcclurephotography over on his fb page so go check them out! #wtfast #adizeroadiospro #antrim #ireland #northernireland #halfmarathon #marathontraining #marathon

A post shared by L I L Y P A R T R I D G E (@lilypartridge) on Sep 12, 2020 at 7:22am PDT

The coverage waspreeeetty patchy. Frustrating, given that the organisers had nabbed Jo Pavey to be on the commentating team which normally means that we actually get some info about the women's race.  That said, it's not normally a big-ticket race so we suspect they were working on a tight budget and with little prior experience. So we'll not be too grumpy! talking of grumpy - Aly Dixon's glutes got in a right grump and she had to pull out after 8 miles. She's due to be on pacing duties at London so let's hope she can get it sorted - herinsta post was very stoic about the whole thing. 

Right behind Lily was Sam Harrison in 71:58 - again a way off her PB but she committed early on and really went for it. It was Welsh athlete Clara Evans who grabbed a PB and a storming race to take third in 72:21 and youngster Becky Briggs got a 72:54 PB. 

Steph Davis was planning to do London marathon but she's running the World Half Marathon champs are on the 17th of October. Perhaps that's why she decided to drop out when things were not going to plan relatively early in the race.  Holly Archer was on pacing duties. 

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