It was another busy week for the club with athletes travelling here, there and everywhere to find competitive opportunities.
We’ll start in Long Eaton in Derbyshire where a small number of the older brigade took part in the British Masters Cross Country Relays, fielding a single team in the M35 category against the best older athletes in the country. Dave Norman took the first leg, running down two age groups to make up the team, coming home in 13.17 with the team in 23rd place and giving the rest of the team something to chase, Derrick Milligan took the second leg stopping the clock in 10.38 and moving the team up to 18th, Gary Worrall gained another 4 places crossing the line in 14th in 10.31, handing over to Dan Maskew who ran the 5th fastest leg of the day clocking a blistering 9.52 to move the team up to 7th place, and Jon Hart, despite carrying an Achilles injury crossed the line in 10.28 maintaining that 7th place and giving the team a total time of 54.46. Only 15 seconds behind Nuneaton Harriers who claimed a Midlands Master bronze medal leaving Wolves in 4th place in the Midlands rankings.
There was also some cross-country action across the pond in the US where Louise Hackett placed 3rd in the NIRCA Great Lakes Regional Cross Country Championships over 6000m to ensure a University of Michigan win with 19 points, they dominated the race with the 2nd place team scoring 98. Louise clocked 21.48.20, just over 30 seconds behind the winner to show she is on her way back after many months of injury.
Dave Norman was in action again twenty-four hours later in the Brewers 10k in Burton clocking 42.52 to place 100th and 2nd in his age group. Lucie Tait-Harris, competing over the 5k distance, ran her fastest time since serious injury clocking a frustrating 21.00 to place 24th and 1st in her age group.
There was some half marathon action in the more exotic location of Valencia where Joe Marples clocked 1.25.42 to place 1983rd. And over the full marathon distance there was a fantastic debut for Kane Carrington in the Snowdon Marathon, or Marathon Eryri. Only a few days after turning 18 and becoming eligible to race the distance Kane clocked 3.49.51 to take 338th place, a performance made even more impressive by the fact that the race was run in torrential rain and cold and with a hailstorm thrown in too, his dad Rob said “I’m so proud of him. He’d only ran 15 miles in training, the boy dun gd”. Another boy who done good was Carl James who crossed the line in the same race in 3.30.31 to take 171st place.
Talking of marathons Dave Joynson and Gill Mitchell were at it again, this time in Canada in the Niagara Falls Marathon with Dave clocking 3.24.18 to take 84th position and 3rd M60, and Gill recording 5.45.30 to place 858th overall.
Dave Norman
