Sunday 26th April 2026
A race that will go down in history saw the first ever sub‑two‑hour men’s marathon, alongside a record field of more than 59,000 runners and a huge celebrity turnout – not least from the seven Harriers representing Greenock Glenpark! The race featured over 59,000 runners, the largest field ever for the event. Demand for places also hit unprecedented levels, with 1,133,813 applications for the 2026 ballot – the first time any marathon has exceeded one million entries.
Sabastian Sawe became the first man to run a marathon under two hours in an official race, clocking 1:59:30, which smashed Kelvin Kiptum’s previous world record of 2:00:35 by over a minute. Yomif Kejelcha, making his marathon debut, also broke the barrier with 1:59:41, finishing just 11 seconds behind Sawe. Jacob Kiplimo ran 2:00:28, securing the final podium spot behind Sawe and Kejelcha.
This time was still faster than the previous official world record, highlighting how extraordinary the entire podium was this year.
On to the important stuff, though!
An absolutely outstanding performance from in-form Neil Lafferty saw the Greenock man finish in a time of 2:32:01, 270th overall and 14th in his age category. For context of how impressive Neil’s run was, his time was not far behind Scotland’s Elite level female Eilish McColgan, who finished in 2:24:51, placing 7th and top British woman. Neil ran every single 5k split at under 4km per minute pace, even going through the 20k / half / 25k split at 3:31/km.
Next home were London Marathon veteran Bob Dolan and first timer Jude Dolan, running in support of Downs Syndrome Scotland Charity. Bob claims this is his last time doing the marathon, but we’re sure he’s said that before. Bob finished just ahead of Jude, going over in 3:41:23 against 3:42:38. Both men were the only other Harriers to go under four hours.
Ryan McMonagle ran well for his time of 4:34:55, just ahead of Cheryl Thomas in 4:36:01. Cheryl was running the marathon in support of Deaf Action, and had an ‘eventful’ day of it on the course, suffering in the heat before having a fall, ironically while waving to her charity reps and dealing with a jarred hip for the last 12 miles.
Aidan Coyle has really been putting the training in over the months leading up to the race, and Aidan finished in 4:37:34.
Greg Luke described the experience as very tough in difficult conditions, but was rewarded for his efforts with a time of 4:42:41.
Well done to all the Harriers who completed the event, great running and you did the club proud.
Full Results HERE
