20 is Plenty!

With the Gloucester 20m not being staged in 2023, spring marathon trainers jumped to get on the start list of the Fission 20/20 at Berkeley. Already established as a great value, well organized event with no challenging undulations.

The date of the event fits perfectly for the spring marathons with London, Wales and Manchester being three of the popular races… and for those not racing a marathon, a 20 mile race gives a near-marathon experience without the unpleasant extra 10km at the end!

Club chairman, Nigel Tillott is Manchester bound and arrived at Berkeley Power Station off the back of a skiing break in Austria. Nigel was unsure of how the run would go as he hadn’t run a flat distance race for a long time; he took a few miles to really get running - perhaps aching legs from the slopes, he later got into his running and finished well. He said afterwards the hills were tough but, with the exception of running through a village called ‘Hill’, there were no hills?

Tim Besien didn’t encounter any inclines during his superbly controlled race. Tim is heading to Wales for the Newport event. His race plan was to ignore pace and run in a desired heart rate zone. Tim finished well and with a history of calf niggles, he was pleased to cross the line bouncing fit.

Jon Mansfield started the race after news that the Tewkesbury Parkrun had succumbed to flood water again. Jon has been training well lately with distances around 10km being his aim. He started with a comfortable first 10 miles before fading away.

There was a 1/2m race at the same time but didn’t attract any TRC runners… even though it was flat… and cheap to enter.

Results:

Jon Mansfield 2:20:16

Nigel Tillott 2:35:17

Tim Besien 3:10:42