Viva Valencia

Alex Milne shaved a sliver from his best marathon time in Valencia on 4 December as he came home in 64th place in 2:17:40. 'A lot of work for a little PB but I'm happy with a solid race with almost perfectly even pacing, even though it was only 13 seconds quicker than at Manchester in April', says Alex.

While his time doesn't shuffle him from fifth place in the All time Club 5-Mile ranking list, topped of course by Club Chairman Dave Clarke( 2:13:34), it nudges him ever closer to the legendary Holt Brothers, Dave (2:16:53) and Bob (2:16:50) who sit immediately above him in the listing. Then above them there is only Steve Badgery (2:25:44) between him and the Club Chairman, Dave Clarke

Having not raced since he won a team GB gold medal in the International Association of Ultrarunners (IAU) European 50K Championships in Avila, Spain in October, Alex(left) was looking to 'find out if only two weeks of high mileage is enough to run a fast time!'

'I felt strong for the majority of the race which gives me confidence I can go quicker with a proper marathon build-up', says Alex, a teacher who is currently based in Monaco. 'It was quite a long journey the day before the race: train to Nice, flight to Madrid, train into the city centre, train to Valencia, and finally a metro that got me there late Saturday night. Then all of that in reverse on Sunday to be back in time for work on Monday!'

His performance over 50K was all the more impressive since in the build-up he broke his ankle  – 'on a run, of course!'

Luckily', he says, 'it was fairly minor and I wasn’t out for that long, so I was still able to get several 80-90 mile weeks in before race day. I was really pleased with the outcome, placing higher (sixth) and running faster (2:54:30) than I thought I was capable of on a fairly tough course with 600m elevation gain.

‘My conservative early pace allowed me to move through the field as the race progressed and the icing on the cake was making third and final scorer for men’s GB team gold, narrowly beating Spain'. 

Next year he had been 'eyeing up selection' for the 2023 IAU World 50K Championships in Port Elizabeth, South Africa, however the event has had to be cancelled, although it is hoped that an alternative host can be found. 'So, says Alex, 'I might attempt a true ultra-distance race in the form of the 90K Comrades Marathon in South Africa in June, instead. That has been a goal of mine ever since I started running at school, thanks to my South African physics teacher who told me stories of the race and inspired me to want to do it.'

In the meantime, his sights are on London where he has an elite place in April's marathon and another chance for a PB.

High Five

While Alex Milne was racing in Spain Jonny Cornish set a new 5-Mile PB of 23:58 closer to home in the Alexander Sports Victory 5 in Portsmouth, improving on his PB set in the same race last year, and just missing out on the win by a mere second, behind Josh Grace of Aldershot, Farnham and District.