Happy Sunday, Crofties! Another week of training and racing comes to an end, with plenty more to come in the upcoming weeks. Before that, let’s have a look back on what our runners have been up to in the first full week of October!
It was another successful Junior session on Monday evening, with this week being all about pyramids/ladders. For our Seniors, it was long intervals at Shobdon with Huw on Tuesday, followed by descending sprints with Tim at Croft on Thursday. All of our training sessions are proving popular at the moment, with plenty of Sky Blues coming out, despite the darker and colder evenings. This is what we love to see!
After last week’s numerous cancellations of Parkruns, the weather was much kinder this Saturday! At Ludlow, it was a small contingency of Croft runners, all running extremely well. Eric finished in 1st with a time of 18:03, Henry and Toby joined him in the top ten. There were also a couple of PBs – Richard in 24:27 and Junior runner; Leni, in 38:41. There have been a couple of hiccups with Ludlow’s results this week so some of our runners may be missing an official time. We apologise if you’ve PB’ed and we haven’t picked up on it. Over in Hereford, Sam J finished 2nd, with a time of 17:49. Another Croft Junior also achieved a new PB here this morning; Henry P in 24:00. Naomi also ran in 24:40. Rounding out Croft’s Parkrun Saturday was Jamie who ran at Worcester Pitchcroft. He finished in 23:08, a new Parkrun PB. He said: “New parkrun pb for me (23:08) at Worcester Pitchcroft today, probably because I had to suit up and dash to my school down the road for their open morning at 10!”
Sam M was also racing on Saturday, taking part in Lakes in a Day – a 50 mile ultra running event in the Lake District. Sam finished in 10:13:25, finishing in 5th place overall!
Saffi headed down to Margam Park near to Port Talbot, South Wales on Saturday to run in the Gwent XC League. She ran her race as a first year U15 and finished in 15th place overall, out of 91 runners. The race was around 3.7k and she finished in 15:00 dead.
Also on Saturday, our club said a heartfelt goodbye to the beloved Tom Davies, with his funeral taking place at Kingsland Church. It was a beautiful ceremony, with many Croft members taking part. Several Croft gents were asked to be pall-bearers, tasked with carrying Tom’s coffin that was draped in a Sky Blue Croft shirt. Huw read the eulogy, while Ali, Tom’s daughter, read a lovely, yet emotional poem, that she had written herself. It was the perfect send of, for the perfect gent. Rest in peace, Tom. Forever a part of Croft’s legacy.
Back to the racing and onto Sunday.
HBXC returned this weekend with the start of the Winter League, taking place at Fforest Fields and hosted by Builth and District Running Club. There is no denying that every year Croft members look forward to running the undulating and mixed-terrain route that the Fforest Fields course has to offer. So really, it was no suprise to see our little team storming away at the front of the field.
It was a quite an overcast day, but just under 40 Croft runners turned up to take part in the first race of the league. Things ran smoothly from the get go, with everyone numbered up and the group picture taken all by 10:45am, ready for the 11am start. It was impressive, to say the least! The usual runners of Sam, Mark, Eric and Gareth led the field away and onto lap one. The course was similar to previous years, bar a slalom type end to each lap across the field. Very interesting and different, indeed! It would be a 1-2 finish for Sam J and Mark L. Eric, who was running first claim for Builth, finished 3rd. Gareth also finished in the Top 5! Irina and Natalie were our first females, coming 7th and 8th female overall. Several Crofties finished in the Top 3 of their respective age categories! This places our Male Team in 1st and Female Team in 2nd in the respective standings! Croft members, be sure to check out race pictures from myself and Mike B on the Member’s Facebook page! Full CARC results:
Sam Juson – 38:03 – 1st Overall
Mark Lamonby – 40:27 – 2nd Overall
Eric Apperley – 41:29 – 3rd Overall (Running for his 1st Claim Club – Builth and District RC)
Gareth Leek – 42:24 – 2nd MV35
Simon Norwood – 46:50 – 1st MV55
Jasper Robinson – 47:11
Steve Partridge – 50:02
Miles Davis – 50:11 – 2nd MV55
Jim Bowers – 51:20
Mark Paviour – 55:12 (Running for his 1st Claim Club – Maldwyn Harriers)
Irina Whitfield – 55:34 – 2nd FV35
Richard Coltart – 55:39
Stuart Austin – 56:03
Natalie Covill – 56:04 – 1st FV50
Oliver Marsh – 57:16 – 1st MU20
Emma Jones – 57:35 – 2nd FV50
Jamie Symonds – 58:07 – 2nd MU20
Mike Bending – 58:25
Christina Pinto-Pearson – 59:58
Liza Austin – 01:00:07 – 1st FV60
Paul Lewis – 01:00:08
Steph King – 01:01:24
Oliver Cameron-Swan – 01:02:04
James Pinto-Pearson – 01:02:26
Sam Harper – 01:03:31
Sue Wood – 01:06:11 – 2nd FV65
Jo Marriott – 01:07:19
Rob Wood – 01:07:19
Guy Whitmarsh – 01:09:02 – 1st MV80
Hayley Colebatch – 01:09:58
Lisa Gray – 01:10:59
Mike Hayward – 01:11:16
Vanessa Bowers – 01:12:00
Anna Bromley – 01:12:05
Nick Paviour – 01:16:11
Tori Dickinson – 01:16:38
Carol Powell – 01:18:02
Louise Reeves – 01:21:19
Ali Davies – 01:25:35
Theresa Jones – 01:25:42
Saffi raced once again come Sunday morning, this time heading to Nympsfield in Gloucestershire. Official results are still pending, but Saf’s mum has told us that she ran 5.2k in around 22 minutes and finished around 7th position!
We’ll end this week with our fell runners!
Tim, Kath, Flora and Gary headed to the Cat’s Back Fell Race in Craswall, Herefordshire. There were 53 runners who ran in this 6.4 mile technical race. All four of them ran really well, with Kath placing 3rd female overall! She also finished 1st in her age category, with Flora and Gary also placing 1st and 2nd in theirs, respectively. CARC results:
Kath Hardwick – 01:12:24 – 3rd Female Overall, 1st in age
Flora Gunner – 01:15:48 – 1st in age
Tim Jones – 01:19:39
Gary Gunner – 01:28:40 – 2nd in Age
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).