The weekend round up started in the middle of the week again for athletes from Wolverhampton & Bilston AC as a group travelled across Shropshire for the first race of Telford AC’s ever popular Sexarathon Series. The first race of 6 was the longest, the Lilleshall 5, but the distance and the long, uphill drag to the finish certainly didn’t put anyone off as 438 runners lined up on the start line. Former Wolves athlete, Reece Ashfield claimed the win in his new colours running for Western Tempo in a time of 25.28 missing out on the course record. Dan Turner was first back for the club in 11th place in 27.02, Paul Dean finished in 35th place in 29.21, Dylan Illidge was 39th in 29.37, Greg Asbury 49th in 30.15, Shaun Bennett 60th in 31.24 and 3rd in his age group, Dave Newport was 63rd in 31.34, Lucy Calrow was 67th overall, 3rd female and 1st in her age group in 31.48. Ben Rawlings was 76th in 32.10, Beth Tabor was 81st and 3rd in her age group in 32.31, Darren Owen-Jones came home in 32.47 to take 88th place with another race in mind later in the week, with Sabrina Thomas a place and a second behind claiming 2nd in her age group, Phil Evans ran a well-paced race to come home in 32.57 in 92nd place but 2nd M60 claiming the scalp of Simon Calrow who went off like a train and finished in 33.17 in 97th and 3rd M60. Dave Norman was 100th in 33.19, Brett Robinson 106th in 33.42, Sarah Thurley 119th in 34.19, Russ Newman 120th in 34.27, Rob Edwards 136th in 35.08, Anthony Pinson 152nd in 36.22 and Craig Buggins was 193rd in 38.34.
There was more action on Friday night as a small group travelled north for the Mid Cheshire 5k, a rapid race along closed country lanes. Amelia Samuels recorded a massive PB finishing in 15.59 to take 2nd female, 1st U21 and 89th overall, Owen Ulfig finished in 16.39 in 161st, Isobelle Jones was 164th in 16.40 and 11th female, Darren Owen-Jones raced to a time of 17.51 in 293rd place and Garry Palmer was 390th in 19.13.
And on to the weekend where a handful took part in the Great Birmingham Run, the website is an endurance event in its own right and I have scrolled through almost 500 pages of results with 10 names to a page trying to find people from the club who ran and are W&B members in the half marathon and 10k. The only two I could find in the half were Ben Mescam who ran 1.40.08 to take 714th spot and Lee Partridge was 785th in 1.41.23. Paul Dean finished in 37.17 in 37th place and Tom Pryor ran 40.45 in 67th. I apologise if I’ve missed anyone.
Louise Hackett was 121st overall and 11th female in 16.51 and Isabelle Price finished in 17.49 and 20th female in 160th place representing the Midlands in the Cardiff 5k.
And in London Beth Tabor raced to a 34th place finish in the ladies race and 503rd overall in 38.16 and Mary Solomon was 9238th overall and 27th in her age group in 1.02.59 in the Vitality London 10,0000. Mary also picked up a medal in the Westminster Mile covering the distance in 13.36 with Michael Solomon in the Special Olympics wave.
Also, on Sunday the youngers members travelled to The Dell Stadium in Brierley Hill for their first Triangular League fixture of the season. Despite waiting most of the week there are still no results listed on the Power of 10 website so we may have to sweep these up and include any details next week.
And finally the marathon monsters were at in again in Milton Keynes with Dave Joynson finishing in 3.09.14 in 96th showing that you could virtually set your clock by him over the marathon distance and Gillian Mitchell finished in 1276th in 5.50.55 to take them both one step closer to the magic 200 mark.
