The weather almost claimed any opportunities to race for athletes from Wolverhampton & Bilston AC as freezing conditions and snow flurries on Sunday morning meant that some athletes made the decision to stay at home and others had race plans compromised because of weather conditions that were beyond their control.
Those that travelled to Telford, provided they made it, were greeted with a gritted course and a fast field for the last fast blast of the year at the Telford 10k. With athletes travelling from around the country, and according to their Facebook page Norway, it was in their interests to get the race underway and with the top two running under 29 minutes with a winning time of 28.523 it was certainly worth the effort.
There were some great efforts all round with James Neilson taking the most plaudits on the day coming home in 143rd place in a rapid 32.44, Tyler Hawley was 169th in 33.04, Dylan Illidge was 310th in 35.18, Paul Dean was 394th in 36.43, Lucy Calrow was 444th in 37.29, Shaun Bennett 479th in 38.06, Beth Tabor claimed a regional vest running for the Midlands Development Team coming home in 485th place in 38.21, Rob Edwards was 758th in 46.41, Peter McCullagh was 779thin 47.43 and Ceri Card was the 55 minute pacer doing an excellent job to finish in 54.19 in 905th place.
Conditions were a lot worse at Sneyd for the Christmas Pudding Run over 10 and 5 miles, two laps or one, with some choosing to take the shorter option on the day in view of the conditions. We were amongst the prizes with Dan Turner claiming the runners up spot, slipping and sliding to a 2nd place finish in 57.26, Darren Owen-Jones backed of the pace in the icy conditions to finish in 1.07.58 in 18th place, Pete Hood was 25th in 1.11.37 to take 2nd in his age group, Alex Kelly was 35th in 1.15.12, Rob Edwards, yes we have two, was 42nd in 1.17.44, Adam Cotterill was 59th in 1.21.56.
There was another runners up spot for the club with Pravesh Patel taking 2nd place in the one lap 5 mile race finishing in 31.05, Paul Clarke was 11th in 33.59 and Sabrina Thomas was 14th in 35.36 to take 3rd female. There was an anomaly with the results with Holly Baddeley being listed in the 5 miles results but surely running 10, the results suggested she was 238th in the 5 mile race in1.02.07.
And to tidy up from last week Peter McCullagh claimed the 1st MV55 prize at the Chasewater Pudding Dash finishing another two lap course around the water in a time of 48.44 to take 45th place.
Dave Norman
