Here we are folks! Another week in the world of Croft Ambrey Running Club comes to an end and we’ve got lots of action to look back on from the past week. Comfy? Let’s begin!
Well done to our Junior runners for kick starting the week with their training session on Monday evening. We’ve been getting a number of new young runners joining us recently and we’d like to wish you all a very big Croft Ambrey welcome!
Senior sessions this week took place in Brampton Bryan on Tuesday, followed by Wigmore School on Thursday. Huw would take Tuesday’s training, with the focus being on Short Intervals, Thursday was Sprints with Eric.
Here we’d like to congratulate our Fell Runners for another fantastic season in the South Wales Winter Fell Series, with several picking up age category awards. Flora Gunner would take home 1st F60, Gary Gunner won 1st M75 and Guy Whitmarsh 1st M80. A great achievement by all!
Moving onto Saturday aka Parkrun Day! Over in Ludlow it was the event’s 9th birthday and another win for Eric. Liza, Stuart, Clare and Jamie volunteered, with Roland taking a few snaps of Croft runners! There would also be a Croft win at Hereford Parkrun for Sam J. Saffi was second female and first in her age category. Elsewhere, at The Cinder Track Parkrun in Whitby, Oliver and Owen M took part, with Oliver T running at Pavilion Gardens Parkrun and Mike H in Llanerchaeron parkrun.
This week was the last Saturday morning training session for the Prepare4Parkrun group. The weather was cold and wet but that didn’t put off this great group of runners. A 4km run just to prove to all of them that they are definitely prepared for Ludlow Parkrun next week. We are hoping for a good turnout of Crofties to give them all a cheer as they go round.
Sunday saw our penultimate Club Championship race for 2024/2025 – Hereford 10 Mile. We had a turn out of around 20 runners to take on the twisty and undulating country lanes of Brienton and beyond. Sam J finished 1st overall, while breaking the course record by nearly 2 minutes! There were also age category wins for Grant and Liza, with the Men’s Team (Sam, Grant and Simon) taking home the team category prize! Full CARC results can be seen below.
Sam Juson – 52:00 – 1st Overall & 1st Team Overall – New Course Record
Grant Womack -1:04:02 – 1st Vet 40 Male & 1st Team Overall
Simon Norwood – 1:09:04 – 1st Team Overall
Steve Partridge – 1:11:55
Stuart Austin – 1:16:33 – 2nd Vet 60 Male
Jo Marriott -1:18:13 – 2nd Vet 55 Female
Roland Preece – 1:24:39
Bronwyn Preece -1:24:54
Howard Verran – 1:26:54
Liza Austin – 1:28:22 – 1st Vet 60 Female
Thea Preece – 1:33:40
Sue Purvin – 1:39:53 – 3rd Vet 60 Female
Steph King – 1:45:24
Lisa Gray – 1:47:23
Hayley Colebatch – 1:51:19
Theresa Jones – 1:57:39
Clare Preece – 1:57:39
Claire Verran – 1:58:00
Reachel Kenny – 2:07:58
Also on Sunday, Eric took part in the Wrexham Half Marathon, where he managed to record a new overall half marathon personal best by finishing this race in 01:12:46! He said: “It was cold, it was windy, but got it done, goal was sub 1.13 and managed that first PB in the half for 23 months. Very happy with that 47 second PB and I think a 4 minute course on.”
It was another Sunday full of running for CARC Junior; Saffi, who headed up to Birmingham to take part in the Birmingham Running Festival! She took part in two races, running extremely well in both. In the 5k race she finished in 21:58, placing 9th out of 168 runners. She would then go on to win the Junior race by some distance, finishing the 800m in a sub 2:30.
Rounding out the week was a small group of Croft runners who went for a leisurely 10 mile social run on Sunday morning. Starting from Church Stretton, there was no doubt that they would end up in a little coffee shop to end the morning!
Well done all for another fantastic week. 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).