As we continue to enjoy the mild autumn weather the Juniors are still able to train in the light…and as ever they kicked off the week on Monday evening with Kelly leading the session supported by Clare P and Tori. The group of 19 warmed up with some dynamic stretching before strides followed by a longer effort – the is in preparation for any of the juniors wanting to run the XC races that will be hosted alongside some of the Herefordshire & Borders XC races this winter. The aim was to help them find a pace they could sustain for a longer period.
Sam led 22 seniors on Tuesday evening for a session focused on hills at Shobdon Woods. After warming up and completing a progressive short sprint (10/20 secs) up the hill to the crossroads we then completed 5×45 seconds and 5x 1min hill efforts before returning to cool down and stretch by the car park.
On Thursday Tim led 11 seniors through a session focused on long intervals at Mortimer Forest.
On Saturday Crofties were out and about Parkrunning at six different venues. 21 were at Mortimer Forest – maybe the lure of Ludlow Brewery voucher prizes in aid of St Michael’s hospice was the main attraction? Indeed Eric A won a voucher as did the Coltart Family. The full list of runners is below but shout out to Owen Spicer who ran a PB (24.44).
There were four at Queenswood including two of our juniors Jonny Ferreira (23:30) and Lucie Juson (35:45) and Suzanne Jones was tailrunning. Jamie Symonds (25:54) was at Wyre Valley. Liza and Oscar Austin were at Arrow Valley, Redditch and a bit further down the road Kelly B, Gemma D and Louise Reeves were at Coventry. Tori Dickinson was at Brook Leys, Cambridge and ran a Parkrun PB (26:50)
Also on Saturday Cat Wain Hobson ran the Langdale Horseshoe. Her Dad Tim reports that ” (this race was) First run in 1973, it is described as one of the most demanding and historically significant fell races in the UK. 12.5 miles and 4,600 ft, Cat came 7th in her age group out of 12 in 3:52. The legendary Jasmin Paris won the women’s race and Cat’s age group, finishing in 2:44. Most of the runners were from Cumbrian and Pennine Clubs. The men’s race was run by Sam Bentham from Ilkley Harriers in an impresive 2:05! Cat said the conditions were horrific, driving sleet on the tops and having to lean into the wind and take side steps to stop being blown over. 10% of all runners were DNF, so she was pleased just to finish. But Cat described her performance as rubbish!”
Early on Sunday morning six of us met at Carding Mill Valley carpark for the Susan Davies Memorial Social Run. It was an absolutely glorious autumn day for Suzy’s memorial run. With many locally races conflicting, Mark led a small group of Natalie C, Tori D. and Miles D and Bodie across a fine route on the Long Mynd and Wildmoor before heading back via the northern flank of Yearlet with great views of the Stretton Hills, Stretton Fault and the Shropshire plains. Theresa J and Anna B. self navigated the route up to Pole Bank and back. We all met up for coffee, cake and plenty of chat.
Henry Eastman was further north joining nearly 6,000 other runners for the Chester Marathon finishing in a chip time of 2:57:54 and only just outside the top 100 Senior Male finishers.
Tony Howsam and Russel Limbert ran Runningmonk’s BC10k trail race. From the results it looks like they both had a great run with Tony coming in at 58:43 and 3rd MV45 and Russ just a bit behind in 1:00:44 and 1st VM60.
Paul Lewis was the sole representative at Monross Trailblazers Blaze the Biblins running a time of 52:52.
Eric Apperly was racing the Oswestry 10k and finished 2nd place in a time of 34:13. From his race report it sounds like Eric agravated his achillies – hopefully not a long layoff.
Further south Tim Jones and Flora and Gary Gunner were running the Cat’s Back fell race. It’s a distance of 11.7km / 7.3mi and ascending 492m / 1614ft. Tim came home in a time of 1:15:27, Flora 1:19:34 and Gary 1:41:22.
Great racing everyone
