Valentine's Day double joy.
Valentines’ Day Slaughter 10km.
Lower Slaughter in the heart of the Cotswolds was the place to be for the club’s second Championship event. A new event with a capacity of 200 runners, the country lane route was a success.
Without question, the most fantastic news is that our own Amanda Martin found herself in fine form and romped away from the ladies field to become the inaugural winner. Amanda, who’s no stranger to 10k running, put aside 10 years of persistent injuries and niggles to beat some strong girls to the line. It’s a great result for the Gloucester based athlete – she’s no stranger to winning events either, though previously she’s been rewarded with ‘Happy Shopper’ Ginger nut biscuits, this time she really hit the target by scooping-up a tremendously generous prize (I won’t disclose the details only to say it’s romantically themed).
Had Amanda not raced on Valentine’s Day, the headlines would have been centring on the exciting form of both Sharon Peters and Simon Osborne. Sharon is model trainer and is due some good results and much like last month’s Linda Franks Five where she surprised a few, she ran well on this typical Cotswolds undulating course to narrowly miss a podium place. Simon was the first Tewkesbury lad to finish with an excellent top ten placing.
Readers were tipped-off about Simon’s ability last month and the tipster was right. Likewise, Alec Vincent was ID’ed in training as a strong runner and he too shined on Valentine’s Day finishing seconds behind Simon. Both their wives ran the course with Fran having a particular off-day with her quads feeling the pain while Elaine (Vincent) ran another consistently honest and rewarding race.
Jay Russell finished shortly after Fran which is promising as he derailed on the Linda Franks course with an injury. Wes Reid, the 2015 ‘Club Person of the Year’ had a great day – he won a rewarding spot-prize – dinner for two in the Cotwolds!
Amanda Martin 44.31 9th 1st FM
Simon Osborne 44.34 10th
Alec Vincent 44.58 11th
Sharon Peters 45.53 4th FM
Fran Osborne 46.59
Jay Russell 48.20
Elaine Vincent 56.19
Wes Reid 61.23
The second fantastic piece of news is centred on Nigel Tillott: Nigel won the Newent Parkrun! Fab news for Nigel as I believe it’s the first time he’s taken an out-right race win – I know from my own records that he’s come second five times before so to hear that he’s had the outrageous feeling of leading a race to the line is wonderful. Well done Nigel.
Fran Osborne also won the female battle at the Evesham Parkrun. Excellent result Fran. Stuart Bird finished 5th at Evesham too with 21:22 minutes.
Paul Mason ran the Cardiff Parkrun in 21:51 – rumoured to be a quick course?
Barry O’Driscoll has been running consistently around and under 25 minutes at the Kingsway (South of Gloucester) Parkrun.
Andy Talbot ( a new and impressively keen member) ran 22:23 over the Plock Court course (Gloucester North Parkrun).
Peter Church who is another new member for 2016 timed 36 minutes in the Cheltenham Parkrun - he even run 29 minutes the week before.
In Nigel’s wake at Newent, Paul Mason timed 23:20 and a noteworthy sub30 by Phillip Howells; Phillip recently had a relatively serious cycling accident (he was knocked by a car) so this is a good sign from Phillip.
Terry Ballard found himself in the Lancaster Parkrun and finished in 30:37. Jude, Carol and Jonathan Teague have also been active on Saturday. If anyone fancies running or helping with Parkruns then please follow my link on the Friday session email.
Aside from Parkruns, two very tough events took place. Both notorious and both are responsible for sleepiness nights – both before and after the race! Jay Russell was the lone Tewkesbury runner in the Mayhill Massacre. Although there were more Tewkesbury runners entered, only Jay finished. He did well and if anything got stronger as the miles were ticked-off. He crossed the finish line in 1:36 hr.
The Dursley Dozen had the pleasure of Teresa Roberts and Stuart & Cathy Dudfield. I don’t know the details only that it was an especially wet 12 miles this year. From the official photographs, it looks the three of them were working hard.
