36 Heathsiders finished the 2005 London Marathon, including several first timers. Ours was again one of the largest training groups in North London and our finishing times ranged from 2:45:06 to a couple of hours longer.

Favourite training routes this year, apart from the usual club runs, covered the northern part of the newly opened Capital Ring (a North & South Circular for runners), the Thames towpath as far as Richmond Park, towpaths alongside the Regents and Grand Union canals and the Lee Valley from Hackney up towards Hertford.

Julian Ferraro's 2:45:06 was definitely the pick of the runs, with personal best times posted by a number of runners, including the leading woman Angela Evans's 3:09:49. The target times for the club's top runners are Piet Jacobs' and Angela Howe's club records of, respectively 2:17:06 (set in Eindhoven in 2004) and 2:49:36 (set in San Sebastian in 2006). We averaged an impressive 3hrs and 36mins on race day and Mat Bigley achieved the mythical negative split.

Of course London isn't our only race. This year Heathsiders also ran Edinburgh, Seville, San Sebastian, Boston, Las Vegas, Rotterdam, Loch Ness and Abingdon. Others from very recent memory include New York, Helsinki, Dublin, Chicago, Paris, Halstead, Isle of Wight, Cardiff, Belfast and Bungay, to name but a few.