Hello all! February is now well underway with plenty to look forward to. And, we can’t to share all things Croft with you! So, let’s make your Sunday evening that ever so more exciting with this week’s Weekly CARC Update! (Also, I’ve been busy making some new graphics for our Social Media pages. Keep your eyes peeled!)
Starting the week off was our Junior runners. Well done to them for another brilliant session at Wigmore. This week they focused on meet and greets, relays and some woodland endurance! Elsewhere, our Seniors headed to Croft on Tuesday evening for Sam H’s short interval session, before joining Tim on Thursday for a wet and muddy hill session around Mortimer Forest. Check out Paul L’s picture of his trainers from the session below!
On Thursday, Saffi automatically qualified for the English Schools National Cross Country Championships. She will be racing on 14th March up at Sefton Park in Liverpool. Also this week she has been selected for the Regional Sportshall League Championships on 22 February in North Solihull. Good job, Saf!
Parkrun Saturday was another wet, wet morning, with downpours soaking runners through. It was a quiet morning throughout, with only 10 runners taking part over in Ludlow, where Eric would finish in 2nd place while celebrating his 100th Parkrun event. Casper, who recorded a new PB, and Nigel also finished in the Top 10. Naomi was 1st female overall, with Liza finishing in 3rd. Volunteers this week were Angus, Paul, Seb and Jamie. Elsewhere, Tori ran at Daventry Parkrun. She finished in 31:13.
It was a big Saturday for Sam J who was chosen to represent the Midlands Senior Male XC Team at this weekend’s Home Countries International Cross Country at Parliament Hill, London! After racing 5 laps of the course in proper XC conditions, Sam would finish in 29th position out of 103 runners before saying, via his Strava, “tiny fish, massive pond! Incredible experience representing the Midlands – still need to invest in some spikes! Thank you for all the support/encouragement. I really do appreciate it.”
There were back to back Fell races for Flora this weekend. Saturday saw her and Janet Hill in the Titterstone Clee Fell race – 4.1km, 221m ascent – essentially straight up to the summit of the Titterstone Clee from Cleeton St Mary and back. Both did well in times of 35.28 and 45.07.
On Sunday Flora was out again at the Long Mynd Valleys race this time joined by Tim Jones. 18km for this one with 1300m of ascent. Tim finished in 2.47.56 and Flora in 3.13.04.
Another Junior with a busy week was Casper. This week he ran at the Herefordshire and Worcestershire XC Championship over in Bromsgrove. He represented the Leominster District with Wigmore School. He followed this up with a very muddy Muddy Woody Junior on Sunday, where he finished in 6th position and 2nd in his age category!
Alongside Muddy Woody Junior was the main Muddy Woody race, both at an all new location for another year. 14 Crofties took part in this race, which would also be the last race in the 2025/2026 Club Championship. Gareth finished in 3rd position, with Miles, Sam H, Richard, Jo T, Rob W, Steph K and Gary placing in the Top 3 of their respective Age Categories. Full Croft Results:
Gareth Leek – 50:03 – 3rd Overall
Miles Davies – 59:38 – 3rd MV55
Sam Harper – 01:05:00 – 2nd FV50
Richard Coltart – 01:07:33 – 3rd MV45
Jo Tilby – 01:08:10 – 1st FV40
Mike Bending – 01:11:09
Paul Lewis – 01:11:48
Rob Wood – 01:15:10 – 2nd MV70
Steph King – 01:16:49 – 1st FV60
Amy Purvin – 01:31:35
Gary Gunner – 01:32:15 – 1st MV80
Angus Kirby – 01:33:11
Huw Williams – 01:36:58
Sue Purvin – 01:47:47
Rounding out this weekend is Saffi who headed over to Birmingham on Sunday to run at the Birmingham Running Festival. She would finish 1st female and 8th overall in the 5k before taking the win in the Junior race an hour later.
Well done all! Please remember that if you would like your race and achievements included in the weekly report, please get them to me (Bronwyn) by 6pm at the latest. Any that come in after, I cannot promise they will be included. The upcoming training schedule will be live on our Facebook on Monday morning. In the meantime, don’t forget, we’re always on the look out for your race reports for the website, so get posting them on Facebook or send them to either Sam H, Tori, Huw or myself (Bronwyn).