It’s Sunday once again which means only one thing – the Weekly CARC Update! Croft runners have been up to all sorts of running this week, including the return of the Summer XC League! Want to know how we did? Read on to find out! Bron has her hands full tonight so it’s her glamorous assistants (Tori and Sam) stepping in!
After a Bank Holiday break, our Junior runners were back in action at Wigmore School. It was another soggy one but thank goodness we just finished before the monsoon rain started. After the usual warm up the main session started with sprints and a focus on running in a straight line – head up and picking a spot to race to. This was followed by longer efforts and recovery around the track. We wound down with a customary bull-dogs style game and stretching. Well done to all the juniors for keeping going in less than ideal conditions.
On Tuesday we welcomed Mark P. back to coaching. With nearly 30 of us at Wigmore the conditions were so different from the night before – the sun was out and there was a spring in everyone’s step, which was lucky as Mark put us through our paces! This was going to a Tempo focused session. So after a warm up jog around the pitches we started with some dynamic warm-up drills as we moved up and down the field. We then split up into 4 groups (by birth month) and did an Indian-file-esque style drill whereby as your group passed a set marker the person at the front had to sprint to join the ‘file’ in front – in theory this should have been 100m but I certainly took longer to catch up. For the main event we were in groups of 3 with similar 5km pace and did 400m intervals with short recoveries. A cool down jog was followed by stretching and some great advice from Mark on good form – especially on squats (thank you Ali B. for your demo).
Wednesday evening saw 35 Crofties run the first race of the Summer XC League and wow how well everyone ran. The race was hosted by Monross Trailblazers at Treworgan Farm. It was the first time I’d run this course and all I can say is it was 4.7miles of ‘proper’ cross country with everything – ups and downs, up up and ups, a stream and even a couple of horse XC fences to pop over! But most of the 220 strong field finished with a smile (well they did a few minutes after crossing the line). The weather even played it’s part with the rain stopping before the race and an amazing rainbow appearing.
So to the results….the headline is that Croft are the leading team (a team is three men and three women) in a combined time of 3hrs, 19 mins and 57.97 seconds (almost FIVE minutes ahead of Monross Trailblazers who’s combined time was 3hrs 24 mins and 54.25 seconds. In all Croft fielded 5 scoring teams and had 15 runners in the top three for their age category.
Full results can be found on the readysetgo website. Croft results are:
Sam Juson 26:50 1st SM
Mark Lamonby 29:47 1st MV35
Andrew Davies 30:00 3rd SM
Henry Eastman 31:40
Joseph Lynch 35:14
Nina Walmsley 37:10 1st FV50
Kelly Bowen 38:03 1st FV40
Irina Whitfield 38:04 3rd FV35
Jo Tilby 38:06 2nd FV40
Ian Chubb 38:30
Samantha Harper 38:53 2nd FV50
Mike Bending 39:37
Russell Limbert 41:10
Jamie Symonds 41:22 1st MU18
Richard Coltart 42:03
Liza Austin 42:14 2nd FV60
Stephanie King 42:50
Paul Lewis 42:54
Oliver Cameron-Swan 43:19
Craig Price 44:04
Carol Powell 44:19 3rd FV50
Rob Wood 45:33 3rd MV70
Ian Price 45:49 2nd MV75
Victoria Dickinson 46:27
Hayley Colebatch 48:25
Sue Wood 48:27 1st FV70
Lisa Gray 49:12
Vanessa Bowers 50:16
Gary Gunner 50:42 1st MV80
Nick Paviour 51:26
Peter High 52:14
Mike Hayward 53:32
Huw Williams 53:43
Bronwyn Preece 54:10
Reachel Kenny 56:33
Thursday’s training was led by Tim. Apologies to him and for no detailed report for this session but I didn’t make it to the session, but know it involved some hills!
So to the weekend antics.
Saturday is Parkrun day! Well done to Casper Coltart who was first Croftie across the line at Ludlow Parkrun in 5th place with a PB of 22.18! Other Crofties taking part were Liza, Jamie, Hayley, Lisa, Peter, Adrian, Frank and Karen, with Paul, Rob and Rachel volunteering.
Richard, Angus and Mike were at Queenswood and great to see Mike Hayward getting a PB in 31.41
Cat was running in the Rab Skyrace series. She did the shorter 12 mile race this year as she has a knee injury, but still came in 2nd lady.
Gary G did the Steaming down the Valley 10k in 1:27:00 and Ali D did the 5k in 59:59
Onto Sunday and it was time for Croft Ambrey Hash #3 brilliantly organised by the hare – Ali Benwell. The hash was from the Hundred House in Purslow.
There were 20 hash runners, 2 walkers and 1 walker who decided to run! We were also joined by Iain “Traveling Wilburey” Prentice who was keeping an eagle eye out for misdemeanours and opportunities for hash naming. The trail was brilliantly laid by Ali, hash name “I’m With Dave”. It was a mix of lanes, fields, a couple of hills, some nettles but not too many, sheep, nice views, forest tracks. Down Downs (a hashing tradition) to the hare (Ali) and Paul “More Miles” Parker for wearing new shoes when he really should know better. Iain gave hash names to Tori who shall now be known as “No Pants” (they were being worn!) and Nina from now on known as “Head In The Clouds”. They also had Down Downs, someone has the photos to prove it. 16 stayed for yummy lunch.
Flora and Tim J did the Four Fans race 12.72 miles and 4275 feet total ascent (on Flora’s watch with a slight diversion). The results were Tim J = 2:56:40 and Flora 3:28:13 (this included a stop from Flor to help a fellow runner after a fall).
So another week draws to a close but the week ahead is looking just as busy.
The juniors will be training on Monday but there is no senior training on Tuesday as it is the third race in the Bryan Markham club handicap series. This is the last chance of the year to run the 5 miles on road starting and finishing at Leinthal Starkes before moving up onto the common next month. Senior members only for this one but next month when we head off road we will be welcoming our juniors to take part.
Good luck to all those racing and running in the week ahead and we look forward to reading all about it in next weeks report. Don’t forget to let us know before 6pm so we can include it.