Another week is over, which means it’s time for another Weekly CARC Update, and once again we have plenty of Croft shenanigans to cover with you all. So, shall we begin?
Blink and you will miss them! We had around 15 Junior runners join us on Monday evening at Wigmore School for their training. This week they were back focusing on their pacing and endurance, doing several laps around the rugby pitch before getting to play their favourite game; Bulldogs!
Tuesday training for our Seniors turned out to be a very wet and soggy one, with only a handful of Sky Blues coming out to High Vinnalls for Tim’s Short Interval session. On Thursday we had a few more attendees, as Emma took over Croft Wood for her Hill session. Thank you to Kelly for snapping some pictures for us!
On Wednesday evening, Jo M and Angus headed over to the athletics track in Hereford for a track session with our friends from Hereford Couriers Running Club! This time around they dabbled with Fartleks with Coach Mark. Crofties, please remember that we have kindly been invitied to Couriers Track Sessions on a couple of Wednesday’s throughout each month. Dates can be found in the Club Newsletter! It’s a brilliant chance to switch up your training a bit, running on different terrarin at different intensities!
Happy Parkrun Saturday! This week we were off on an Away-Day Parkrun adventure to Shrewsbury! This parkrun also counted as our November round of the Club Championship. 10 Croft runners arrived at The Quarry in their Sky Blue shirts all ready to take on the 3.1 miles around the park. Taking the win was Eric who finished in 16:55. Kath was our first female in 22:43. Apart from Eric, all of our runners who took part started and finished Shrewsbury Parkrun for the first time, all within the top 400 out of nearly 700 runners. Other Croties decided to stay closer to home, running at the usual Ludlow Parkrun. Our first runner home was Casper, who finished in 24:09 and in 7th position. Toby S, Richard, Seb, Mike B, Steph K and Oliver M joined him in the top twenty finishers. Steph K was also our first female finisher and 2nd female finisher overall. She recorded yet another PB with a time of 26:25. Rob M volunteered. Elsewhere, Sam J ran at Rogiet Parkrun down in Caldicot near to Newport. Not only did he take the win, but he also smashed the course record with a time of 15:46. Jamie and Angus headed down to Camarthenshire in Wales to run at Llyn Llech Owain Parkrun. They finished in 24:29 and 29:45 respectively. Rounding out our Parkrunners was Mark P and Reachel, with the former running a new PB of 21:49. Rach’s time was 34:29.
One of our newest members, Cat, was over in Eslida, Spain this weekend. She was one of two ladies chosen to represent the UK at the Merrell World Sky Running Championships. This particular race is nicknamed; “Marathon for the Demented!” However, in heartbreaking scenes, Cat was forced to withdraw after 31km, where she was taken to hospital with a badly twisted ankle! Dad, Tim, said that it’s “an occupational hazard with this type of extreme race.” Regardless, what an achievement for Cat to be chosen to take part in this race, especially while representing our little club. We’re pleased to report though she is still smiling!
And, Cat wasn’t the only Croftie in Spain this weekend. Mark L was was also there, albeit in a different part of the country, taking part in the Ironman 70.3 World Championships.
Elsewhere, it’s been another busy week for Croft Junior; Saffi. On Thursday she ran in the Herefordshire Schools District Cross Country trials and was the first female back for her School and is straight through to the County Championships in January. On Saturday it was the Sugar Loaf Fell and her Garmin clocked 5.36K. She finished 1st female/2nd overall in the U15-U17 age category and has won the U15 girls South Wales Fell Series. On Sunday she absolutely smashed the Bristol Mo Runner hilly 10K trail and was their female Champion. She received a lovely champion medal and a plaque. An unbelievable 12th place overall out of 283 runners (109 of those were female). She took the women’s lead from the start and maintained that throughout the race and finished in 44:53.
Finishing off the week with Flora and Gary as they took on Ras Rhobell Fawr Fell Race. Flora told us that there were 56 runners who took on this 6.8 miles race. Flora finished in a time of 01:30:06, coming 2nd in her age category. There was disappointment for Gary when he missed the last check point at the summit. Because of this he missed out on a timed result! Flora said: “That’s the reason he hasn’t got a time results. In races you have to expect disappointments , I have quite a few. I was very lucky after running more than 3 miles going I did looked around and I saw one runner came from the other side . The last check point was difficult to find unless you knew how to read the map. I had a rough idea in some parts because we did this few years ago when I just started doing fell races. Overall I did enjoyed it I probably do it again.”
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, Huw or myself (Bronwyn).