England Masters marathon qualification

One of my big goals for this year was to qualify for the England Masters team.

Looking through all of the qualifying races for this year I thought Redcar Half Marathon in September would be my best shot. I'd be 50 by then (easier in theory) and based on WAVA scores from recent years, HM was a much stronger distance for me than Marathon. Going into this year it was a 79 min HM PB vs a 2:58 Mara PB.

Goals for 2024

But, just to see how the system works as much as anything I registered for Manchester Marathon selection for the M45 category.

...and all of the stars aligned, and I somehow got into the top-3 of the M45s who had entered for qualification.
Third in M45 for Masters qualification

The fact I crept into third place by only 5 seconds over 42k (without having a clue where I was in the huge field) makes me feel even more over the moon. 5s over 42k is about the same a 1s win in a 10k.

Anyway, delighted - and I'll have a go at the HM distance to qualify as M50 at Redcar - maybe even have a weekend away down at Portsmouth to give the 10k qualifier a go in the M50 category too.

Pretty chuffed with this

..and how does the Masters qualification work...


Step 2 - Check out the races - four a year spread around the country in each distance (10k, HM, Mara)


Good luck to anyone giving it a go. 

...and one more goal to hit for the year - top 50 ranking on runbritain for one of the main categories in the M50 category - probably 5k (not steeplechase!)

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