Happy Sunday Crofties! Let’s make this a quickie, as our youngest “member” is in need of a lot of attention this evening! We’ve a lot to cover, with plenty of achievements and recognitions thrown into the mix! Ready, steady, goooo!
There was no training for our Juniors this week due to the May Bank Holiday. The same cannot be said for our Seniors who got to enjoy their two weekly evening sessions. On Tuesday it was over to Shobdon Church to enjoy a Hill session with Huw below the Arches before heading over to Wigmore on Thursday for Nina’s Long Intervals. Nina said about her session: “Brilliant work from everyone tonight with the long intervals at Wigmore. And never believe the weather, it was a glorious evening & plenty of giggles.”
Jumping to Parkrun Saturday and we had runners taken part in 6 Parkruns! Over in Ludlow it was Caspar leading the way for Croft runners, finishing in 5th position with a PB time of 22:31. His dad; Richard, also finished in the Top 10. Steph K, also recording a new PB, finished 2nd Lady. Her time was 26:11. 3rd Lady went to Hayley with a time of 31:19. There was also a new PB for Peter H in 31:41. Volunteers this week were Jamie and Rachel T – both who took on the role of Run Director, Tori and Paul L marshalled, Seb was a barcode scanner and Oli C-S and Rob M tail walked. Over in Hereford, Birthday Boy Sam J took another win, finishing only 1 second ahead of 2nd place. His time was 17:52. Rob W also took part. Tourists this week were Liza – she ran at Arrow Valley, finishing in 23:56, Natalie – running at Talkin Tarn Country Park, her time was 26:50 and The Bowers Family at Y Promenâd (Brecon) – Jim finished in 7th position with a time of 21:03. Vanessa ran with Gwen, both with times of 36:41.
Away from the Parkrun shenanigans, several Crofties headed to Clun to run/walk the Clun Valley Challenge – another of the Long Distance Walking Association’s annual events. Runners can chose from two lengths – 16 mile or 26.2 mile, with most (possibly all) Crofties choosing the latter. The route takes competitors over The Shropshire Way and incorporates sections of the Offa’s Dyke. Unfortunatley, at the time of writing, results are unavailable, however we can tell you that Ali B, Paul P, Michelle and Bella all took part. We apologise if we have missed anyone from this list! (We did ask on Facebook who was doing it!)
It was a big weekend for Nigel, as he took on the 100-miler Epona. This route may seem daunting to some with it’s 100 mile radius, but it also comes in with at least a 17,500ft of elevation gain over hills surrounding Abergavenny and beyond. Nigel finished 24th overall with a time of 32:55:06. Incredible!
Another Croftie out on the trails on Saturday was Janet. She was taking part in the Apocalypse Ultramarathon in Church Stretton. “The Apocalypse Ultra is a unique and devious format. There are four completely different loops; Conquest, War, Death and Famine. Each loop is a different distance, adding up to 50 miles. You can choose to simply complete one loop, two, three or battle all four. There are various combinations from 10 miles, through marathon distance, then 30 to 50 miles. You can run or walk the loops in any order and in any direction you wish. This makes it almost impossible to calculate who is winning the event until the winner crosses the line. It is a devious game of fun!” According to Janet’s live tracker, she completed 3 out of 4 loops – Conquest, War and Famine. Brilliant!
Moving onto Sunday, and keeping to trail, Louise P and Flora ran at The Excalibur Trail Half Marathon in North Wales. Flora finished in 02:46:36 and 1st FV60, while Lou finished in 02:57:00 and 3rd FV50. Lou told us: “I was full of all my standard pre-race anxieties this morning and almost came home… until I happened to notice who had parked next to me! Needless to say, Flora sped away up the steep starting hill like the wonderful sky blue flash that she is and I didn’t see her again until the finish! The Excalibur Trail Half was a superb event, low key, brilliant lumpy (3,200 ft.) route (apart from the start!)”
Moving onto the road with Eric, running for his first claim club – BaD RC, at the Caerphilly 10k in South Wales. This year saw a revised route with less elevation, something Eric wasn’t too fond of. However, he would go onto finish in 14th position with a time of 32:31. He said: “Let’s go back, in the 32s. Got in a great pack early on and worked hard through halfway in 15.55 dropped a little in the second half but we are starting to believe in the fitness that is there and the progress is showing that.”
Next up is Steph M, running at the Crowle 10k in Worcestershire. No results are available at the time of writing, but Steph said she finished 3rd in age with her best 10k time since 2022.
We’ll end this week with the big one – RUN Hereford – the annual running festival hosted by St Michaels Hospice. A popular event with Croft runners, this year several entered the races available – 5k, 10k and Half Marathon.
In the 5k, we had 3 Sky Blues taking part – Saffi (running for Hereford AC), Casper and Richard. Saffi finished 1st Female Overall and 1st in F13-14, while Casper was 1st M13-14 and Richard 2nd MV45. Their chip times:
Saffi Reid – 19:51 – 1st Female Overall and 1sr F13-14
Casper Coltart – 20:09 – 1st M13-14
Richard Coltart – 22:11 – 2nd MV45
Two Crofties – Tori and Vanessa, ran in the 10k. Tori, finished 3rd FV60, with a time of 53:53, while Vanessa finished in 01:04:42.
Rounding out with the Half where our runners took a 1-2-3 overall, 1st lady and 1st team! 9 Crofties took part and their times were:
Sam Juson – 01:09:09 – 1st Overall and 1st Team
Gareth Leek – 01:16:16 – 2nd Overall and 1st Team
Andrew Davies – 01:17:22 – 3rd Overall and 1st Team
Mia Davies – 01:35:30 – 1st Lady Overall and 1st Team
Craig Price – 01:45:41
Carol Powell – 01:55:28
Paul Lewis – 01:56:55
Thea Preece – 01:59:36
Oli Cameron-Swan – 02:00:11
We’d also like to give our RUN Hereford water stop a team a huge shoutout for their efforts and support on the Half Marathon down near to the Bunch of Carrots! Well done Team Croft! Showing once again the amazing support we give, not only our own runners, but all in the running community!
That’s all we have for this week. If you have been doing something that you would like included in the weekly roundup please let Bronwyn, Huw, Sam H or Tori know before 6pm on a Sunday.
We are always on the lookout for race reports to go on the website too. They do not need to be huge, or even go into too much detail, but let us know where you went and how it went for you together with a couple of photos and make our website current and up to date.
Enjoy your week of running everyone!