We are now it’s the tail end of the cross-country season, and there’s s bit of this here, but we are now more onto the road, a bit of fell racing and people building up to spring marathons, so this is certainly a mixed bag. This also means there are far more places to look, far more random things going on, so I apologise if I’ve missed anything.
Let’s start with the cross-country action and head north to Pontefract for the English Schools Athletics Association Cross Country Championships where a number of athletes from the club pulled on the West Midlands vest. Fred Jones was a fantastic 3rd place finisher in 10.06, and Grace Hendy was 84th in 12.16 in the junior races. Megan White placed 156th in a time of 14.43, and Oliver Cresswell was first back for the region in 14th place in 15.42 in the Intermediate races and Isobelle Jones finished in 10th place in 15.54 senior division.
At the other end of the scale our recent signing, Gary Worrall, raced in Corwen, North Wales in the British Masters Cross Country Championships placing 36th in a time of 34.14.
And over the fells there was a victory for Beth Rawlinson in the Wrekin Fell Race over 8.8k with a total ascent of 519 metres. Beth was 17th overall in 47.29. Dan Maskew was 11th in the same race in 45.46.
There was plenty of action on the tarmac with action in the West Country where Lucie Tait-Harris placed 371st out of a field in excess of 8000 in a time of 1.25.07 and Dave Norman ran a painful 1.34.24 to place 760th in the Bath Half Marathon. There was similar action up the road in the Stafford Half Marathon where Beth Tabor finished in 2ndplace in the ladies race having led for some distance in only her second half marathon, she stopped the clock in 1.22.48 and placed 40th overall. Luke Maskew was 4th in 1.14.33, less than 20 seconds behind the 3rd placed athlete, Ben Foster was 10th in 1.17.02, Alex Kelly was 189th in 1.34.01. With the results listing all bar a few athletes as independent as far as club’s are concerned, and 38 pages of results to trawl through I’m sorry if I’ve missed anyone on this one.
Meanwhile Jay Patel went a little further by competing in the Ashby 20 as part of his marathon build up finishing in 2.18.37 to take 69th place.
Further afield our marathon maniacs ticked off another 26.2 adventure, this time in Italy with the Rome Marathon around the ancient city. Dave Joynson finished in his usual solid time, on this occasion clocking 3.16.35, and Gill Mitchell knocked off another great effort with 5.35.50.
And finally, a bit of tidying up from the previous week when Pat Cummings and Lee Partridge completed the Ultra in the Black Country, a 33 mile looped run along trails, towpaths and tunnels on a circular route from Dudley. Pat was first back for the club in 20th place in 5.58.08 and Lee was following in her wake in 21st place in 5.58.11.
Dave Norman
