The big event of last weekend, the Virgin Money London Marathon, saw eight Otley AC runners making the trip to the capital with Liam Dunne first home in 388th place in 2:45:40.

He was followed by Richard Clarke in 3,920th (3:23:10), Karen Potter 6274th (3:37:21), Jackie Ackroyd 9676th (3:52:43), Lisa Maughan 12654th (4:04:03), Stephen Boddy 15,711th (4:16:57), Tom Hannah 23,014th (4:28:51) and Sean O’Halloran 32997th (5:57:46).

Maughan was running her second marathon but it was her first time at London. She said: "I was both excited and nervous in the lead up to it. I woke up early and made my way to the start.

"Fortunately I bumped into Tom Hannah and Jackie Ackroyd at Charing Cross station and Tom's laid back attitude helped to calm my nerves.

"We were in the pens about 30-minutes before the start, which actually passed quite quickly, and then we were off. I had decided to run near the four-hour pace group, along with around 15,000 other people, or so it seemed. I was scratched, shoved and tripped up twice before half way, it was horrible.

She added: "Thankfully it thinned out a bit around mile 18 but then I had to contend with people stopping to walk in front of me, which was annoying especially when you are tired. I caught up with Tom at about mile 19, he was in a lot of pain and after checking he was okay and giving him a couple of Ibuprofen tablets I ploughed on.

"I knew at this point that I wasn’t going to make sub-four hour but I was determined to get as near to that as possible so I pushed on. The crowds along the last stretch were amazing and pushed me on.

“All in all I was very pleased with my time, a 12-minute personal best. It was an amazing experience but not one I will be repeating in a hurry."