With 3 club championship events in 4 weekends at the moment, this fallow week is a good opportunity for our members to take it easy and they took that opportunity.
NO, of course they didn’t, they travelled the length and breadth of the country to take on a myriad of events and get their half and full marathon events done.
We’ll start at Chester where James Lye, Jon Morrell, David Aplin and Nick Maryon completed the Chester marathon. Jon paced James to a sub 3:30 PB and Dave also got a PB as it was his first marathon.
There was also a marathon in Bournemouth which Alan Rex Kember, Jo Gill, Lauren Edwards and Chris Jones completed. It was a PB for Lauren as it was her first marathon and as Stewart Unsworth was keen to point out, we think it is the fastest marathon debut for any of our members this year.
Andy Goreing was also in Bournemouth doing their half marathon, it was going extremely well up to 9 miles but then it became a struggle. He still pushed round and finished in just under 2 hours.
Dave and Susan Mackie and Daniel Parker travelled to Tisbury in Wiltshire for the 50K Run With No Witty Name. This was on the Saturday and the open Salisbury Plain is not the best place to spend a day with a large amount of rain but a great effort from all to be out there. The view from the Quarryman’s was much superior.
At Britain’s second biggest half marathon in Cardiff, Marie Vinolo-Young continued her strong run of form. After a 1:40:02 at Chippenham, she left nothing to chance and took 2:35 off that time for another stunning PB.
Also running at the Cardiff half marathon were Biggsy (with his daughter), Jan Forsyth, Mark Cortaville and Gareth Evans.
Despite all of these people being away David ‘Mr. Awesome’ Bethune was able to get a good team together so that the Marshfield Mudlark, Mudlite and Mudling could be held successfully. This was his 11th year of organising and it was by all accounts another great event.
We also had Chris Hunt and Cheryl Hurren running he Salisbury half marathon (I hear there’s a nice cathedral there with a special clock). This was event 9 of the Wiltshire Road Race League so they picked up some points for us.
We also had 3 other people doing half marathons, Jamie McBrien and Darren Thorley were at Oxford and Stephen Watts was at Cricklade.
Andrew Wood is no stranger to Obstacle Course Races and did the Spartan Super 8 mile race at Bagshot, nr Windsor. He finished 4th in his age group and has qualified for the Obstacle Course Racing World Championships.
Rebecca Edwards took 47 seconds off of her 5k PB at Chippenham Parkrun.
And finally, some say that dinosaurs are extinct but we know differently with our own T-Rex Alan Kember. His legacy will be continuing following the birth of his grandson Joshua Rex.