Tracy Barlow wins Maidenhead HM, on course for Frankfurt

Another great win for TVH endurance star Tracy Barlow who broke her own course record in the Maidenhead Half Marathon as her presence grows on the national long distance stage.

Tracy clocked 75:51 to win the women’s race by almost three minutes from Emily Wicks. While tricky conditions and a heavy training schedule meant the time was 90 seconds outside her HM best set in Bath in March, it showed Tracy is right on target for the Frankfurt Marathon late next month.

“The race was topping off another high mileage week,” Tracy said. “I had done a hills and threshold session the day before so my legs weren’t exactly fresh going into the race. It was lovely to win again and break my own course record there, even if I had to go off and run another 6 miles to make it into a 20 mile run in total!”

It’s been a great year already for Tracy – her outstanding London Marathon time of 2:33.20 ranks her fourth in the country, and she set a new 10km PB of 34:23 in Berlin in July. While her winning margin in Maidenhead was comfortable Tracy had to knuckle down in the latter stages of the race to seal victory.

“The weather was pretty blustery so the second part of each lap was tough running into it. The field had petered out quite a bit by this point so I was alone bar a couple of guys dotted about. It was a mental battle to keep pushing when I felt so tired and knew I was in the lead. There was a little group of us who were running together so that helped keep me going.”

Tracy’s next focus is the Nottingham Half Marathon on September 25 and she then goes warm weather training to Portugal again for 11 days focusing on key training weeks for Frankfurt on October 30.