GARETH Cooke and Naomi Drakeford might just be the country’s fastest couple after the duo both finished in the top 50 at the London Marathon on Sunday.
The pair, both 30 and living in Wilthorpe, run for Barnsley Athletics Club during the week and admit the household is very competitive. And after Gareth’s personal best of 2-24-35 which earned him 48th place and Naomi’s local record of 2-46-50 which meant she was the 25th women to cross the line, that competitive edge is stronger than ever.
Gareth has run every day since November 30, 2015 in memory of his grandma Ann who died of lung cancer in 2012 and his 40th marathon at the weekend was his fastest yet.
He told the Chronicle: “Sunday was my best time in a marathon and I beat my personal best by 27 seconds my last PB was in 2019.
“I was confident going in as I’d been having a little bit of a purple patch. But I was just over the moon with Sunday’s result I really enjoyed it. I finished in 48th place and there were more than 58,000 people registered it’s not a bad finish.”
He entered his first marathon in 2013 in Milton Keynes, finishing in a time of four hours and four minutes.
But did he ever think he’d be able to cut almost two hours off that time?
“At that point I never thought that I’d be able to get a time like Sunday’s PB,” he said.
“I’ve been running now for 11 years but at my first marathon I didn’t know what to expect.
“I think that even for me it’s been inspirational I never envisaged being able to do something like this. I’ve done 40 marathons now but even after Sunday I know that I want to go quicker. You’re never satisfied I’m always wanting more.”
But surely after a 26-mile race on Sunday Gareth treated himself to a well-deserved break on Monday?
“I went for a five-mile run around London the day after and it was a bit of sightseeing I ran past Big Ben,” he said.
“It’s more than 3,000 days consecutively I’ve been running.
“In the run up to the marathon I was running 120 miles in a week so I’m planning to take it a little bit easier for now. I’ve managed to come out of it pretty much unscathed injury wise.”
Gareth is the fastest Barnsley man to run the London Marathon in recent history, whilst Naomi beat a long-standing Barnsley AC record with her fantastic time.
“Naomi managed to get the club record at the weekend which had stood since 1986,” he said.
“She’s the fastest women marathon runner in the history of the club. There’s been some competitive chat in the household recently. I think locally we’re probably the fastest couple and on the day as well I don’t think there were any couples faster.”
Naomi finished just two minutes behind the elite level runners on Sunday and she’s now got her eyes set on competing in that category in the Great North Run. It’s not something she ever thought would happen, but she knows there’s now a target on her back.
“I’m over the moon I didn’t expect to get that time,” she said.
“I know that I’ve got people hot on my heels now. It’s my fastest marathon, 11 minutes faster than last year. I know that I’ve just got to keep on going.”
And living with Gareth is only going to help her achieve that goal.
“He’s massively helped me to get more into my running. But he won’t coach me because he doesn’t want me to blame him for doing something wrong. There’s a lot of banter about.
“We were running the same races as each other before even meeting so it’s good to come full circle.”
