Leinthall Starkes 5 handicap race 3

Report by Mike Blenkinsop

The final race on the road, before heading for Bircher Common to complete the season’s handicap series, provided the last opportunity to set a PB on the old 5 mile course and 10 runners took advantage of the favourable conditions to wave a fond farewell to Leinthall Starkes with improved performances and some committed running. The temperature was quite cool for June, good for running but not so suitable for the proposed revealing of the latest CARC fashion item – the sky blue mankini. This will now be revealed at the next club event so, if any of the club’s prospective male models are interested in strutting their stuff, please apply to the committee for a trial runout – Ts&Cs naturally apply.
Numbers were slightly down from the previous 2 outings so a repeat of May’s brain-wreck was thankfully avoided and the evening’s proceedings ran smoothly.
First across the finish line, having sped past 10 runners on the way, was Bronwyn Preece, Bron had hobbled home last month so this victory was probably predictable and I will be collecting my winnings from Ladbrokes in the morning. Perhaps not so predictable was her huge margin of victory and she was able to sit on the finish line tree stump and solve the Rubik’s Cube whilst waiting for the opposition to finish. 2nd across the line, after also underperforming last time out, was Stuart Austin who led home his own family fleet of Austins – all performing in sprightly fashion. Completing the top 3, and registering the unusual achievement of appearing on the podium in successive races, was Alison Davies with a determined run which improved her best by almost 3 minutes.
Amongst the mass of PBs, recorded on the night, the biggest was recorded by Oscar Austin. It is a while since he ran in this event, but an improvement of 3 mins 20 secs. was remarkable. Lucy Austin, another who had not competed here for some time, also registered a big PB to climb into the all time top 20 female times at no. 17 – a notable performance in an event that has been in existence since 1989. Student life is obviously good for the health and wellbeing these days – back in my student days, the only running happened when the barman shouted “last orders please”.
Another who should be well-pleased with his excellent run is Gareth Leek, who sliced 28 seconds off his already outstanding PB to record 27.17 and climb to no. 8 on the all time listings.
The half-way point in the 2024 Handicap Series has now been reached and as we approach the date when we commemorate D-Day, it is appropriate that we observed some Dazzling, Dashing and Dynamic Displays this evening. The series, so far, has attracted a record number of runners, witnessed an outstanding course record set by Sam Juson and welcomed a large number of newcomers.
Many thanks to everyone who has helped to make the event such a success with time-keeping, recording, judging, marshalling and photographing – your devotion to duty is much appreciated by all.
From here we head for the hillier off-road course on Bircher Common for the remaining 3 races in the series, the first of which will be held on Tuesday 16th July. Handicap times will be based on a relevant percentage of the last time each runner recorded here at Leinthall Starkes this season. Onwards and Upwards.

	RUNNER	Age Cat	TIME
1	BRONWYN PREECE	SF	41.24
2	STUART AUSTIN	MV55	36.29
3	ALISON DAVIES	FV35	48.52	P.B. by 2.52
4	TIM WAIN-HOBSON	MV65	48.19	P.B. by 2.16
5	CAROL POWELL	FV50	44.57
6	ALISON APPERLEY	FV55	68.07
7	REACHEL KENNY	FV55	55.58	P.B. by 1.02
8	INGRID MASON	FV60	46.21	P.B. by 1.16
9	MIKE HAYWARD	MV60	45.00	P.B. by 1.15
10	LUCY AUSTIN	SF	35.52	P.B. by 0.45
11	HAYLEY COLEBATCH	FV35	45.34
12	LISA GRAY	FV50	45.50
13	FLORA GUNNER	FV60	44.36
14	SUE WOOD	FV65	48.10
15	OSCAR AUSTIN	SM	32.21	P.B. by 3.20
16	TOBY SPICER	MV45	36.06	P.B. by 0.45
17	ALISON BENWELL	FV60	48.39
18	GARETH LEEK	SM	27.17	P.B. by 0.28
19	ERIC APPERLEY	SM	26.29
20	MARK PAVIOUR	MV60	36.50
21	FRANK LUSCOTT	MV65	49.46
22	IAN PRICE	MV75	42.40
23	STEVE PARTRIDGE	MV40	32.57	P.B. by 0.02
24	LIZA AUSTIN	FV60	42.24
25	SAM HARPER	FV50	44.27
26	JO TILBY	FV40	36.59
27	RYAN BURKIN	FV35	31.58
28	GARY GUNNER	MV75	43.54
29	MIA DAVIES	SF	36.10
30	TORI DICKINSON	FV55	51.47
31	MARK LAMONBY	MV35	27.25
32	NIKKI FERGUSON	FV35	51.43
33	ROLAND PREECE	MV55	40.53
34	HUW WILLIAMS	MV60	44.41
35	TOM DAVIES	MV75	60.56
36	STEPH KING	FV50	53.51