21st April - Mais Oui Monsieur. Albert goes to Paris

Albert Kemp, chairman of Wadhurst Runners, completed his 25th marathon at the recent 33rd marathon de Paris, France.

The race was run with ideal conditions with a light breeze and a friendly 15 deg C. The race was as popular as ever with 35,000 entrants. Kemp finished in a respectable time of 3:38:09 in 83rd placed Vet (age 60+) and overall 6,591st place.

Kemp said “why did I choose Paris for my momentous quarter century of marathons. The answer is simple. I would have preferred to run the Flora London Marathon but am unable to win a place on the ballot. I failed to qualify for the “Good for Age” entry as at my age it is difficult to break 3:30. The Paris marathon is a tough race as it is very competitive with much jostling, bumping and grinding by the runners. Coupled with poor organisation, such as bringing the race to a halt at the ½ way stage because of too many runners and the drinks station being placed in inconvenient places which causes congestion contributed to greater finishing times”. ”.

Elsewhere the Waddies had many runners at various races. Peter Burfoot ran the Rotterdam marathon despite running only 8 weeks after abdominal surgery and troubled on the day by a streaming head cold. He still achieved a respectable result, in a time of 3:40:30 and finished in 1,905 place out of 6,443 finishers under a clear blue sky and conditions similar to the Paris event.