It may have been Eliud Kipchoge stealing the limelight at the Berlin Marathon but keeping him company were three determined Aberystwyth Athletic Club runners.

The weather was perfect for running, slightly overcast with a gentle breeze, and on one of the flattest marathon routes it was no surprise Kipchoge managed to break his own record.

Aber AC’s Ed Land also secured an excellent time, finishing in 520th position overall out of a field of close to 35,000 runners in a time of 2.41.17, his second fastest time to date, quite an achievement coming at the end of an injury plagued year.

Paul Williams narrowly missed coming under three hours, finishing in 3.02.12, but will have another chance to break that barrier in the London Marathon. Julie Williams had a great run too finishing in her best time of 5.21.49.

As well as the running, Paul felt thrilled to be part of an historic event: “The Berlin Marathon is quite an iconic event in the running calendar anyway and it’s great to be part of it.

“But it was even more exciting to be involved in such an event where the best marathon runner in the world, maybe of all time, broke his own incredible record. It is a great city also to see but perhaps the hours of sightseeing after the race was not a great idea with London Marathon coming up.”

Continuing with the international feel, intrepid running traveller Balázs Pinter took part in the Ben Nevis Ultra, organised by Salomon Skyline Scotland and billed as only for the boldest all-round ultra-runners. It is a 52km loop in the Highlands, very challenging skyrunning with considerable height gain, great variability in the terrain including river crossings, and an airy traverse of one of Scotland’s most famous ridges, the Càrn Mòr Dearg Arête, leading to the summit of Ben Nevis.

This was the second time for Balázs to take part in this race,

He said: “It rained all day last time but this time I could see the wonderful surrounding mountains and waterfalls. One of the challenges of the course is its inaccessibility and as a result, there was only one refreshment point, where we could get water and food.

“196 runners started and we had a target finish time of within 14 hours of which 138 of us managed – I finished in a time of 11.35 so very happy with that and will probably return next year.”

Coming closer to home and the Dale Half Marathon was held recently in Pembrokeshire with three Aber AC athletes making the journey down. It was certainly a worthwhile journey for Gary Wyn Davies as he romped home to take first place, for the second successive year, in a time of 1.20.31. Ian Brandreth managed a sub 2 hour time in 1.57.01 with Claire Lancaster securing a PB time of 2.13.34.

Gary was delighted with the win: “This is a lovely route in one of the most picturesque parts of Wales, but as it’s Wales it’s most definitely not all flat. It is extremely well organised and it was great to see Aberystwyth flying high on the podium. I’ll have to come back next year now to defend my title and aim to make it a hat-trick of firsts.”

And finally a special mention must go to another record breaker – Aber AC’s very own Janoš Vranek who set a new record for Aberystwyth Parkrun recently, completing the course in a time of 15.08, breaking former Aber AC runner Adam Bitchell’s record that has stood for seven years.