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.