London Marathon preparations complete for nine members of Newmarket Joggers

Nine Newmarket Joggers members are preparing to tackle Sunday’s TCS London Marathon.

Among those heading to the capital are Troi Baxter, who is the fastest female in the club.

Baxter has four marathons under her belt with a personal best time of three hours and nine minutes, achieved in Boston (USA) earlier this year.

However, the hope is that in London she will become just the second female Jogger to dip under the three-hour mark – a feat achieved by Daisy Glover when she clocked 2:52:17 in Paris four years ago.

Baxter will be joined by the club’s four fastest male runners: Mark Hayward, Jimmy Smith, Paul Holley and Ben Blowes.

There is very little in the personal best marathon times of Smith and Holley.

Smith, who is fast approaching 30 marathons, has a top performance of 2:38:06 while former jockey Holley – about to appear in London for an eighth time – has a PB of 2:38:32.

Hayward will go into the race in a positive run of personal best form having set new leading times in every distance from 5K to marathon during the last 12 months.

His best marathon time at the moment stands at 2:41:26, which was achieved in Boston (UK) this year.

As for Blowes, he was originally a member of the club between 2008 and 2014 before he left to develop his own fitness company.

Now back in the team, Blowes has run eight marathons in under three hours, with his PB 2:48:51.

The club’s Pearl Fay will be competing in her first ever marathon, while at the other end of the scale Chris Aylmer will be appearing in marathon number 17, having qualified as good for age (70-74) in 2021.

With a personal best of 4:49:23, Aylmer is keen to go under five hours again to quality again next year.

Marc Drury – with a personal best of 3:12:14 – is likely to be aiming for a time closer to three hours in what will be his fourth marathon and Richard Jones (3:36:44 PB), having missed last year through injury, is aiming for around 4:15:00.