Fourteen Juniors kicked off the week enjoying a session in unseasonably warm conditions at Wigmore. Kelly, supported by Clare and Tori a warm up, practising their dynamic warm up, sprints, sprint relay and finishing with a meet and retreat. Well done team.
Tuesday saw the seniors training at Wigmore. 22 joined a session led by Nina with a focused on shorter efforts and sprints.
On Wednesday seven from the club headed to Hereford for a track session led by Wye Valley Runners. It was a very well attended session with some of Wye’s beginner runner’s joining the session. Under the lights the focus was on longer efforts (at 5km pace) at six minute intervals with two minute recovery. Future sessions this winter will also be focused on longer efforts also
It was lovely to see Clare P back leading a senior session at Croft Castle on Thursday…..she put 17 of the seniors through their paces with short intervals run at close to full effort in a pyramid drill building up from 1/2/3/4 min then working back down the ladder.
On Saturday, as on any Saturday, lots of folk were up running a 5km parkrun. As usual the most Crofties were at Mortimer Forest with 17 runners. Shout out to Owen Spicer who ran a PB and those volunteering including Paul Lewis, Karen and Adrian Coffey and Jamie Symonds. At Queenswood we had three seniors and one Junior (Johhy F. running) and at Hereford Ben Rees ran a PB (22.13). Further afield Angus Kirby (18:16) was at Portsmouth Lakeside and then doubled up with the 10 mile AJ Bell Great South run on Sunday finishing in 1:39:48. Mike Bending (24:13) was at Millfield (in Easingwold), Jamie Symonds (24:33) was in Cardiff. Seb M (26:52) was with his family at Chester and taking the prize for the furthest away is Sam Juson who ran the Sunnyvale Bay Trail near San Jose,California – he finished first across the line in 15:48 (which he thinks is a course record). Great running everyone.
Janet Hill also did a double race weekend. On Saturday she ran Langdale Marathon on a perfect Autumn day in the Lakes. 26.4 miles, 906m of ascent. Janet said she was slow, but the only one in my age group. On Sunday she travelled down to Edale for the second event in the Peakraid Autumn series. These are 3 hour score events. My route took me up Mam Tor and the Great Ridge. I was first in my age group with 250 points (some people get nearly 600). A fantastic weekend of running.
Sunday saw the running of the next race in the Club Championship with the HM and 12k options at Ron Skilton race, run run in the hills around Llanwrtyd raising money for MNDA. In beautiful Autumn sunshine it was a Croft double first in the HM with Gareth Leek 1st Overall and 1st Man and Emma Jones 1st Lady. Flora Gunner took home the 1st Female 60+. The full results are below. Great running everyone.
Gareth Leek 1:41:37
Nigel Taylor 2:07:54
Emma Jones 2:21:21
Steve Partridge 2:25:21
Greg Jones 2:28:50
Tim Jones 2:35:46
Flora Gunner 2:35:51
Oli Cameron Swan 2:38:28
Jo Marriott 2:39:03
12km
Jamie Symonds 1:26:57
Anna Bromley 1:48:20
Huw Williams 1:48:20
Louise Phillips ran the TCS Amsterdam Marathon in a chip time of 4:06:01. It was the 81st time Lou has run a race of marathon distance or longer and it was her second fastest marathon ever. In Lou’s own words “It was a great marathon and of course, it’s very flat but with a few sneaky inclines! The support was incredible, especially on the one really dull dual carriageway section – I wondered if they specifically ask supporters to head there! Otherwise it was a nice route, we ran through the Rijksmuseum, Vondelpark and there’s an out and back section along the Amstel where I saw two windmills and people on some sort of water rocket jets! (I like out and backs so liked it more than some people do).
Liza and Lucy Austin and Kath Hardiwck were in Rome this weekend for the Wizz Air Rome Half Marathon. Joining 40,000 others they all ran great times in reported humid conditions. Liza says “it felt like we had done a half before we even got to the start! Phenomenal route round all the famous sites of such a beautiful city. Great atmosphere but not the easiest with 7k of cobbles”. Lucy ran 1:37:13, Liza 1:54:11 (with incredibly even pace of 5:25/6) and Kath 1:52:04. Well done ladies.
One of our juniors Casper C. ran in the Gloucester AAA CC League Race 1 at Tinkley Gate. Running the 5k U16 Boys race he came in 15th in a time of 21:59. His Dad reports it was a fast competitive race with a sprint finish (which you can see from the photo below with the competing runner just cropped off (deliberately). Well done Casper.
Some news to report on from last week….. a big congratulations to the Gunner’s for their performances in the South Wales Summer Series. Gary won his age group and Flora was second in hers.
Saffi R was also in winning mode last weekend competing in the hilly 1k and a 5k Black to the Trails at the Blaise Castle Estate in Bristol. She was:
1st in age/2nd out of 90 females in the 5K
1st/68 females in the 1K (& 2nd overall ….just 1 second behind the man who won it!)
Well done Saf
