Bolton runners celebrate getting to the finish line of marathon

A number of people from Bolton successfully completed the Manchester Marathon last week.

The gruelling 26-mile course took runners from Trafford through the city, down to Altrincham through Stretford and Sale and back again.

And residents from the borough were among those who crossed the finish line and picked a well deserved medal.

Heather Tomlinson finished as the fourth female in the elite category.

The grouping ran separately from the main race.

To be able to qualify for this she had to run a half-marathon in under one hour and 19 minutes, which she did in Wrexham in February this year.

The 31-year-old from Bromley Cross aimed to go below two hours and fifty minutes and came in just inside this at two hours and 49 minutes.

She said: “The elite experience is unique.

“You are chaperoned to the start line and we had our own warm up and we were the first to set off.

“It was tough, I went out to do under two hours 50 and got it and I was the fourth elite female.

“I did Berlin last year but I had a bad experience so I was more determined than ever to run this well.”

She said she will do another marathon but for now will do some shorter distances.

She added: “I have been running properly since Covid and ramped it up since.

“I joined Bolton Harriers which is a great club, we have a great running coach in Dave Shaw and I have made lots of friends.”

Tommy Harrison, who also runs with the Bolton Harriers, completed his second marathon in two hours and 37 minutes.

His time placed him as the 46th finisher of the main race.

He completed a marathon in Amsterdam last year and improved his time by five minutes.

The 40-year-old from Kearsley said: “It went to plan.

“I had support form my club and my coach on the course who had a bottle of gels for me.”

He added: “I ran the Bolton 10k in 2011 which was organised by Bolton Harriers, they then emailed me saying would I like to join.

“I went down and met the coach Dave Shaw there

“They are a great group of guys.”

Mr Harrison believes he can go faster and would like to do Amsterdam again or Frankfurt in the future.

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Another pair who got to the finish line were Lindsay Heyes and Louise Toone.

The group run with Cutacre Running Club and completed Couch to 5k there in 2022.

And now just two years on they completed the marathon in just over five hours.

They were coached by Melonie Crompton, who founded the Cutacre Running Club.

She said: “I am incredibly proud of them, they are amazing, they have done so well.

“I can remember some of the early runs when we were trying Couch to 5k and they felt they could not even complete those runs and looked at them now, they have gone and completed a marathon.”