Month: April 2019

Sprigings smashes Paris!!

Mark Sprigings produced the most outstanding performance of the weekend in Paris. Fresh off a massive half marathon PB at Reading a few weeks back, Mark had set his sights for around 3:05, with a view to a sub 3 attempt at Berlin later in the year. In Mark’s words: The plan was to run a controlled 3:05 but felt so good after just the 1st mile I thought I’m going to go for it!

Couldn’t believe my luck when everything was still going well at halfway..then still at 20 miles and through all the way to the finish! Mark crossed the line in an incredible 2:55:43, a massive 20 minute PB and an impressive 863rd out of approximately 60000 runners.

Great Welsh Marathon

Tony Freer, Jon Tudor, Jadie Cotterell and Fran Amigoni headed to the Llanelli for the Great Welsh. Jon reports: Strong winds and chilly conditions greeted the 4 DRC runners at the start. The first half of lap 1 was fairly easy going with the wind behind us. Tony set off strong averaging 8mm pacing with myself Fran and Jadie sticking together at 8.30mm. After the first turn point, Tony continued to maintain his pace staying just ahead of the 3.30 pacer. The route brought us back through Festival Fields and took us along the beach path to Berry Port and the next turn point. We then headed back to Festive Fields to start lap 2. Tony continued to maintain his pace but Jon Tudor started to close the gap averaging 8.20mm.

Fran and Jadie continued their phenomenal performance sticking together like a well gelled unit. After the turn point at mile 18 the wind got brutal severely slowing all of us. The game of attrition had begun. The wind continued to hamper us all the way up to the final turn point at Berry Port before mercifully weakening.

All that remained was to complete the final 2 miles thus completing one of the most brutal marathons I have ever done.

Results: Tony Freer 3:37:15, Jonathan Tudor 3:45:15 (PB), Francesca Amigoni and Jadie Cotterell 3:49:56 (both PBs)

Brighton Marathon

Damian Lai was the sole DRC representative on the start line for the Brighton Marathon. Damian reports: Brighton was a fantastic race, the crowd support in places was awesome, I couldn’t hear myself think!

My name was being shouted all the way round and this really spurred me on! The temperature was perfect and after a frosty morning it was 4 degrees when we started but the sun was shining so it felt warm. I loved the race there were a few short hills but I just pushed up the hills. A stiff Easterly breeze in the last 5 miles did not stop Damian posting a 5 minute PB.

Result: Damian Lai, 3:44:32 1804th

Chedworth Roman Trail

11 DRC runners lined up for the Chedworth Roman Trail Race. Dave Saunders reports: It was a very hilly course and also included a ‘river crossing’ at 5 miles with water up to our knees. At least there wasn’t a great deal of mud but the wind was strong and very cold.

Results: Alice Lewis 153rd (LV60/02) 1:30:52 Andrew Kilby 170th (MV60/07) 1:33:34 Nicola Christopher 174th (SL/11) 1:33:43 David Saunders 215th (MV70+/01) 1:37:42 Darren Smith 319th (SM/60) 1:48:46 Zoe Fowler 331st (LV40/35) 1:49:22 Rachel Cook 332nd (SL/39) 1:49:22 AndrewFerguson 345th (MV40/90) 1:51:02 Julie Froggatt 411th (LV50/41) 1:58:58 Claire Searle 412th (LV50/42) 1:58:58 Carly Heath 427th (SL/53) 2:02:00 Clair Norman 428th (SL/54) 2:02:00

Parkrun

There was just shy of 30 parkrunners for DRC this weekend. Fastest time of the weekend was Kris Rymer at Stonehouse in 21:29 with the best Age Grading being Graeme Hawkins with 78% at Kingsway.

Greater Manchester Marathon

Sunday saw two DRC Club Stalwarts, Margaret Johnson and Kevin Jackson at the Greater Manchester Marathon, as ever for a spring marathon they had months of training in the dark and cold to get to the line. Johnson GPS data is evidence of her consummate ability to pace herself, she was delayed around the 18 to 19 mile mark, but apart from this she ran a very controlled race, finishing an excellent 18th F50 out of 360 in the category and 326th out of 4194 women. Johnson commented “I am happy enough with my time, felt ok throughout, lost a couple of minutes in second half due to issues, but it’s a marathon after all, things happen and a marathon is a long way and should never be under estimated”.

Jackson was running strongly but due to losing his gels early in the race he ran out of energy at about fifteen miles it was then all about juts getting to the finishing, which of course he did. The mental effort this takes should not be underestimated. Johnson and Jackson dedicated their runs to the mother of a fellow DRC athlete who had suddenly died of cancer. Results: Margaret Johnson, 03:35:40, 3135th, (18th F50); Kevin Jackson, 04:07:24, 5696th , (181st M55).

Angels 10K

Sunday saw the third race in the Glos AAA Aroad Race series, the Angels 10K held at Ashleworth, just North of Maisemore. Last year’s April event had been postoned until September due to flooding, this year it was a dry cool April morning, with a strong breeze. The course can best be described as testing, after a gentle downhill, that encouragies fast runing, over two and half miles the runners are then faced with a half mile climb with the gradient reaching around 10% in parts. The second half is rolling with a couple of nastly little rises before the finish on the outfield of the Woodpecker’s Cricket pitch.

Injury again took it’s toll of the DRC team with Mike Brown and Rachel Brown not making it to the start line. The cool morning was ideal for running. Quite a few DRC were first timers and were warned by those who had raced the course that they had some serious climbing ahead. It is fair to say even with a pre-warning it is still a tough race. the DRC athletes all paced it well, all finishing strongly. Dave Durden led the team home in 42:29 (gun time) and was pleased with his even effort over the course, which was difficult to pace. Andy Probert was next in just of three minutes in arrears, with Graham Tudor sprinting for the line to place 52nd. As ever Dave Saunders and Alice Lewis did very well placing 1st M70 & first M60. Results: Dave Durden, 24th, 42:29; Andy Probert, 44th, 46:12; Graham Tudor, 52nd, 48:12; John Delafield, 62nd, 49:18; Alice Lewis, 64th, 49:39; David Saunders, 71st, 50:53; Hugh Poppy, 73rd , 51:00; Steve Barnes, 101st, 56:48; Annette Heylings, 111th, 01:01:30.

Cattle Country 5k/10k

The Relish Events double header also took place this weekend at Cattle Country. Graham Wilkes the sole DRC representative in the 5K finished home in 55th position with a time of 38:54. Five athletes took part in the 10K. Matt Hazel-Livall led the team home in 44:20, 1st Senior male and 3rd overall. He was joined by Richard Hogg, 6th senior male, Clare Troy, 5th Senior Woman plus Hollie Dent and Charlie Taylor.

Results: 5K: Graham Wilkes, 55th (10th M40) 38:54. 10K: Matt Livall, 3rd (1st SenM) 44:20; Richard Hogg, 13th (6th SenM) 47:17; Clare Troy, 67th (5th F40) 01:02:11; Hollie Dent, 108th (26th SenW); Charlie Taylor, 150th (43rd SenW) 01:24:10.

Parkrun

26 DRC athletes were at parkrun this weekend. Caz Harper Easthope was over the moon with a big personal best at Kingsway, getting herself into the 60% age grading as well. Other PBs were run by Julia Dawson(Kingsway) and Alexandra Kemp (Wotton), whilst there were course bests for Ellen Efford(Chippenham) Jackie Pennington ((Chipping Sodbury) and Janet Matthews at Thornbury. Chris Rymer was fastest on Saturday with 21:26 at Cirencester, Janet Matthews fastest DRC woman. Top of the age gradings was Mouse Clutterbuck running his fastest ever parkrun at Gloucester City as first timer, his 21:20 gave an Age Grading of 72.6%, with Eileen Hieron heading up the DRC women with 67.97%.

Cirencester: Kris Rymer, 7th , 21:26; Damian Lai, 30th , 23:47; Chippenham: Ellen Efford, 160th , 31:38; Chipping Sodbury: Jackie Pennington, 226th , 28:49; Gloucester City: Mouse Clutterbuck, 14th , 21:20; Richard Prior, 54th , 26:37; Steve Barnes, 69th , 27:31; Caz Harper-Easthope, 94th , 26:32; Terry Cother, 102nd, 27:07; David Quarterman, 103rd, 27:10; Paul Dunn, 130th , 28:59; Joseph Dunn, 131st , 28:59; Amanda Hensman, 151st , 30:11; John Spicer, 165th , 31:00; Eileen Hieron, 211th ,36:19; Karen Eadon, 212th , 36:20; Julia Dawson, 222nd , 38:04; Sarah Kiddle, 229th , 38:45; Llanelli, Andrew Oborne, 31st , 22:28; Thornbury: Carl Fivey, 13th , 24:24; Janet Matthews, 26th , 26:00; Wotton, Garry Strickland, 15th , 24:14; Alexandra Kemp, 30th , 27:31; Tracey Strickland, 48th , 31:08; Steve Rugman, 49th , 31:09; Jude Rugman, 80th , 37:58.

Vale of Glamorgan Coastal Ultra

Paul Lee reported on his Vale of Glamorgan Coastal Ultra run, “after a cold and windy start from Penarth pier very pleased to reach the finish line at Ogbourne-by-sea after 33 miles along the Glamorgan coast. Mostly wonderful scenery with an interesting tour of Barry Island Fortunate with the weather and the favourable wind direction. Well organised and friendly event with a lot of support from the locals”. Another great endurance performance from a DRC athlete.

Ocean Lava Olympic Triathlon

Ray Williams returned to Triathlon after 18 months out of competion due to an serious injury that required surgery on his shoulder. Racing with Mel Williams, they completed Ocean Lava Olympic Triathlon at Fuerteventura, he described it as tough race with lots of climbs and strong winds”. Ray managed to 03.03.50placing 179th out 231 athletes with Mel William finishing in 03:30:53, 208th and winning her age category in the process.

Another big weekend for Dursley Running Club Athletes and in particular the participants in the club’s Walk2Run Programme. Saturday the 30^th saw Cam and Dursley shrouded in cold mist and as DRC athletes travelled to the Kingsway parkrun “DRC takeover” it hardly lifted. It was of course ideal conditions for running. Kingsway saw 37 DRC athletes on the start line, many members there to support the 2019 Walk2Runners “graduate” including club veteran John Spicer, running his first ever parkrun in the M75 category. The DRC W2R programme is now in its sixth year and is proud of its athlete centred approach, ensuing those new to running take a progressive approach to becoming active. Some of this year’s graduates have progressed from 1 minutes running and 1 minutes walking in January to running the whole of the Saturdays parkrun, a continuous run of around 40 minutes! The programme was coordinated by a former Walk to Runner Damian Lai he posted “Thank you very much to Kingsway parkrun for hosting the Dursley Running Club takeover for the Walk2Run graduation. For the DRC walk2runners this is the culmination of 12 weeks on a life changing journey. It was great to see all Dursley runners running the whole way around. It was a proud moment for the club when they all came in. For Dursley there were a total of 37 runners celebrating the achievements of what has been an excellent 2019 Walk2Run programme”. As a result, there was just the one DRC runner at Wotton. Matt Rogers enjoying “springy” conditions under foot to record DRC fastest parkrun of the weekend in 19:29 Lots of PB/CBs headed up with Lai, fitting for the W2R graduate turned W2R coordinator, on the fourth anniversary of his graduation run in 2014.  Dave Quarterman, Carly Heath, Natalie Sankey all ran PBs at Kingsway and Paul Lee at Stonehouse. Results: Chipping Sodbury: Catherine Pinnock, 96^th , 23:10, VW35-39, (F35 AG 64.53%); 132^nd, 24:44; Janet Matthews, 195^th, 26:56; ; Exmouth: Pete Dunn, 118^th, 24:41, Kingsway: David Durden, 10^th, 20:02, VM50-54, (M50 AG 76.04%); Graham Tudor, 43^rd, 22:45, (M60 AG 72.38%); , Alice Lewis, 50^th, 23:01, (F60 AG 83.13%); John Delafield, 51^st, 23:05; Andrew Oborne, 57^th, 23:23; Damian Lai, 58^th, 23:30, (PB); , Huw Poppy, 63^rd, 23:54; , Antony Ball, 98^th, 25:24; David Quarterman, 106^th, 25:44, (PB); Erica Fuller, 108^th, 25:52, (F50 AG 64.82%); Steve Barnes, 119^th, 26:23; Claire Searle, 129^th, 26:44, (F55 AG 66.83%); Darren Smith, 140^th, 27:19; Carly Heath, 155^th, 27:57, (PB); Julie Froggatt, 165^th, 28:20, (F55 AG 63.06%); , Nikki Pallister, 187^th, 29:28, (W2R- First Timer); ,Lisa Ind, 188^th, 29:30, (W2R First Timer); , Kate Hrozova, 192^nd, 29:42, (W2R First Timer); , Mark Mcconnell, 200^th, 29:59, VM55-59, 51.70%, First Timer! Tracey Strickland, 206^th, 30:14; Diana Gore, 208^th, 30:18, (F60 63.15%); ,John Spicer, 215^th, 30:49, (M75 AG 61.49%, First Timer); Annie Hidden, 226^th, 32:03; , Julie Davies, 270^th, 37:04; , Jacky Gilmour, 271^st, 37:05; Natalie Sankey, 275^th, 37:31, (W2R- PB); Mim Chapman, 276^th (W2R); Conor Small, 277^th, 37:39, (W2R First Timer); Mike Hanman, 278^th, 37:39; Josie Clarke, 280^th, 37:40, (W2R First Timer); Vicki Howe, 286^th, 37:48, (W2R First Timer); Sam Martin, 287^th, 37:49; , Michael Froggatt, 292^nd, 38:19; Emma Alesworth, 332^nd, (W2R); Veronica Higgins, 320^th, 45:21; Kevin Brockway, 333^rd , 55:07. Stonehouse: Paul Lee, 23^rd, 23:47, VM65-69, M65 71.83%, (PB): Wotton, Matt Rogers, 2^nd, 19:29, VM45-49,  M45 73.31%,

Frampton Globe Trot

Also on Saturday Steve and Jude Rugman were at the Frampton Globe Trot completing the 8 mile race raising money for Frampton Cottrell CoE Primary School. Steve Rugman 102^nd 01:22:31, Jude Rugman 209^th 01:58:49. Running at the Bisley 10K on Sunday were Mark Springings and Sam Stevens. Sprigings reported it was “A well organised small event with only around 160 runners in total”, the athletes running around the attractive village of Bisley on a course described as “undulating” it was not a fast course and Sprigings commented that it “was certainly testing with a fair few steep inclines!” he finished 3rd overall in a time of 39:52, Stevens 01:16:21. A final pair of 10K athletes were to be found at the Cardiff Bay 10K, Adrian Carter achieving a PB. Result: Adrian Carter, 00:58:19, 2389^th , (47^th M60); Dave Ashford, 01:04:08, 3188^th , (260^th M45).

Rogue Runs Night Series

Off Road saw two trios of DRC runners in action. On the evening of Thursday the 28^th Nicki Cowle was with Rachel Brown and Caroline Whitlock competing in the last of the Rogue Runs Night Run Series.

 Whitlock was first home for DRC over the 5 miles in 48:20, 53^rd and 9^th F45, Brown and Cowle finished together in 55.09, both 13^th in their age categories! Sunday the 31^st Rachel Brown, Dave Wood and Andy Probert completed the Cleevewold 14 . The Cleevewold is a tough and hilly 14-mile multi-terrain race. The race starts at the medieval Postlip tithe barn and covers the highest points of the Cotswold hills on Cleeve common, before returning to Postlip via the Belas Knap neolithic burial mound. Wood ran strongly, 5 minutes quicker than 2018, with an average pace of 8:30 minutes a mile. Andy Probert just over two and half hours and Rachel was happy with her run”. Provisional (Strava) times: Dave Wood 02:01:22; Andy Probert 02:30:38 Rachel Brown (tbc).

Merthyr, Yeovil and Dorset

Last week at Merthyr Tydfil Kris Rymer ran a tough and undulating Half Marathon course, this did not stop him running a six-minute personal best, reflecting his strong season in 2018 and his commitment to training over the winter. Result: Kris Rymer, 01:42:56, 133, (19^th M40). This weekend Anne Harris ran the Yeovil Half, an attractive but again undulating ciourse. Harris had completed limited preparation and so was in her own words “very pleased to finish and collect my goodies”.  Result: Annie Harris, 02:19:15, 1272^nd, (162^nd F40-49). Quentin Somerset New Berkeley Harriers BH founder  and DRC athlete completed the Dorset Ooser Marathon his 92nd Marathon.

Titan Training

The weekend saw another big training Saturday for the DRC- Tri-team after their Westonbirt training day last weekend. The team were in Wales preparing for the Brecon Titan Middle Distance Triathlon. Twenty athletes started the in very misty and cold conditions and finished in the warm sun, the cycle of c.60 miles with almost 5000ft of elevation representing some excellent training.