Dave Thompson, Jean’s husband, has successfully completed another half-marathon to raise funds for Aquinoe, shattering his previous best time by 9 minutes 33 seconds. Dave finished the Paddock Wood event in Kent on Sunday in 2 hrs 12 minutes 50 seconds, way in advance of any of his previous four half-marathons.
Dave, 67, said: “After some awful weather in previous weeks raceday turned out perfect for running, cool and bright, so that helped me a lot.“I also had great support from my family at two key points along the way — and I had been doing a bit of extra uphill work in training which helped greatly over a couple of longish inclines in the last three miles.”
Aquinoe Charity founder Jean stationed herself near the 8 and 12-mile points, cheering Dave on his way along with her daughter Ruth, son Patrick, his fiancee Helena and her daughter Grace, aged 7.
Dave said: “They were far and away the loudest of all the supporters on the route and were a massive boost. There was even more cheering when I got home.”Congratulatory messages also came in from Dave’s two children, Marie and Chris, and Jean’s other daughter Rachel, her husband Ed, the other trustees and Aquinoe supporters.
Overall, Dave finished in 1,507th place out the 2,500 runners, 230 places higher than his previous best in 2011.
Dave added: “A possible aim for next year would to be finish in the top 1,250 but I’ll have to improve another 12 minutes to do that !”
If you would like to sponsor Dave and have not yet done so please contact him by email on dthommake@btinternet.com or phone or donate via the Paypal button on this website.
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