Ron Peters Canberra Marathon

M55 Ron Peters ran the Canberra Marathon last week and managed to complete it despite difficult circumstances - See photo!

I asked him if he was happy with his performance and how were conditions? In his own words;

"Yeah . I can't complain. I ran faster than Col McCleod ran at Canberra when he was in the the 55-54 age group.   I was shooting for the Aust.  record  of 2:38:10 and hit half way at 78:30.  Felt good too. Started going off pace at 30k. The thing is I didn't feel like I was slowing.  I developed a huge blister too.  It didn't slow me down - but hell it hurt.  I tripped at about 37k and felt it burst when I stamped my foot to catch myself.  The last ten km I lost heaps of time.  The course record of 2: 40:56 (John Gilmour again) slipped away and so too Col's Queensland record.  My prep. was pretty good and I scored good tucker and everything so I just have to accept the result (for now).   I do much prefer 10000m and 21.1k races.

Conditons were perfect.  After the race I really suffered from the cold dry air.   My nose bleed and so forth.  Glad to get back to humid old Brizzy.  I have had a cold this week and have hurt my lower gut from sneezing so much.  It is slowing me on my runs more than the DOMS."

I dont know what DOMS is? But Ronnie sure is a tough nut! 

Here is some perspective,  Ron ran 2h44m06 for 12th place overall  in Canbera.

Just under a thousand M55's raced at London, those under 3hours were;

Flora London Marathon 2009 Results

position	pl.age	no.	name		age	club	time
438	1	57194	» DI SOMMA, ANTONIO (UAE)		M55		2:49:47
441	2	781	» STEPTOE, COLIN G (GBR)		M55	VALE OF AYLESBURY	2:49:49
505	3	32370	» BUTLER, DAVID A (GBR)		M55	BILLERICAY STRIDERS	2:52:11
591	4	32940	» ROTHWELL, COLIN (GBR)		M55	BENFLEET RUNNING CLUB	2:54:22
737	5	31656	» THOMAS, RICHARD M (GBR)		M55		2:57:03
788	6	31598	» RICHARDSON, SIMON C (GBR)		M55	POCKLINGTON RUNNERS	2:57:56
844	7	32456	» RHIMES, GODFREY H (GBR)		M55	CITY OF PORTSMOUTH AC	2:58:48
936	8	31799	» WARRICK, MICHAEL J (GBR)		M55	RHAYADER AC	2:59:55
939	9	31421	» BOOTH, ROGER (GBR)		M55	SHELTON STRIDERS	2:59:58

So Ronnie , running with a huge bloody great blister, would have finished 5mins in front of the next runner in Cat at London !!! Shows you what quality Ronnie is, as everyone who is anyone in the UK would have raced at London.