It’s been a very sad year for the Gatliff Marathon community and I hope you will understand if I dedicate the opening remarks to pay tribute to four long standing associates of the Gatliff that passed away.
- John Munday, who completed his first Gatliff in our second year, 1985, and went on to complete 3 50km Gatliffs within 10 hours. More recently, he led the organising committee. Even when he was ill, he continued to support the event.
- Keith Tarrant was involved in all the Gatliffs as a key member of the amateur radio team and died very suddenly which was a great shock. Even when he moved away from the area, he still returned every year. His cheery help, encouragement, ideas and technical know how are greatly missed.
- Brian Russell was on our most loyal entrants that I’m sure many LDWA members will have met over the years. His first Gatliff 50km completion was in 1985 and he continued to clock up a total of 23 completions within 10 hours, the last one being in 2011.
- David Best, who often manned checkpoints with his wife, Ireen, for which we are very grateful. Many will remember the welcome sight of their camper van in previous Gatliffs
They will all be sadly missed and we thank them for their support. I think they would be proud of how this year’s event went.
The weather was kind to us this year and conditions underfoot were the driest we have had since the ground froze over in 2010. The routes headed south from Edenbridge destined for Winnie the Pooh country and the Ashdown Forest; hence the bucket of pooh sticks at the start!
We had another record entry (354) and record number of starters (309) split over three routes. For more detail and to see how this year’s event compares on the “hardness” scale, see the gatistics.
This year, there was one special certificate awarded, to Michael Thomson, for completing 10 50km routes (each within 10 hours) in an impressive 71hours 30 minutes. He has completed 10 out of the 11 last events.
David Wakeling and Jeff Campbell continued their almost perfect record by completing their 32nd event. For a run down of the top completers, see the gatliff_results2016.
There were many personal best times around the 50km course and Lisa-Joanne Walbridge also set a new Event Best Time. She also clocked up her 5th win.
Congratulations to the front runners of each event:
| 20km | Emma Houghton & Josephine Child | 2:39 | Richard Bushell | 2:16 |
| 35km | Mel Frazier | 4:13 | Hugh Torry | 3:43 |
| 50km | Lisa-Joanne Walbridge | 5:58 | Dave Wakeling | 5:25 |
We hope you enjoy pondering over the results and various statistics.
We look forward to seeing you for our 34th event.
Tim Styles
(Gatliff Entries Secretary)
