Scenic Six
Peopleton’s Scenic Six was a huge success for St Richard’s Hospice due to a bumper turn-out of runners wearing sunscreen. As Tewkesbury Running Club’s feature race in the Club Championship, it proved popular with an in-depth mix of runners.
It was an exciting event to be involved in with Tewkesbury being heavily involved over the fields alongside the village.
No one was more so involved than Elaine Vincent who took a bad landing in some sheep poo and covering herself with fresh green-tinted dung. Although she went on to run a fine race it wasn’t until a hose-down that she discovered her arm was quite badly bruised and the skin had bled.
Her leggings had around 0.5 kg of dung still attached while she chewed on one of the fine WI cakes in the village hall.
The headlines though belong to Jane Sauer; arriving fashionably late, Jane bolted into the lead with Natalie Jenks et al in pursuit. Natalie took a gamble on racing as she was carrying with a chest infection and a smoker’s cough – she only lasted a mile at Jane’s pace before her body shut-down and was forced to withdrawn. Disappointed however, Natalie was happy to support the charity and went on to give vocal abuse to the rest of the runners. Jane continued to give Tewkesbury’s Alec Vincent, Russell Steele and Vlad Venglar hassle and by the second mile, Jane had pulled out a fine lead on the chasing women competitors. Alas, the second lap proved definitive as Jane lost some tempo and was overtaken and had to settle for an impressive clear second place.
Laura Kent returned to the Scenic Six after a two year enforced break and was over-joyed to strip 4 minutes off her previous best time. She worked the course well with her training partner Linda Younger. With Linda not competing as such, Michael Younger made hay as the sun shinned and ran an excellent race.
Karen Mason is firmly back with TRC and showed her determination with her longest run for a few years. Suzanne Tharme was supported by husband John and saved her best for the camera.
Paul Mason found himself in an exciting sprint finish... just what everyone needs!
The BIG sprint finish of the day was between Vlad Venglar and Russell Steele; Russell had carefully sat on Vlad for the last few miles and sprung past him with 20 yards to go. Vlad had little chance as Russ hit top gear. Alec Vincent was the 4th Tewkesbury man as the effects of a 50 mile bike ride the previous day affected his run during the later stages.
Safe to say Elaine was the unluckiest on the day though Jon Mansfield must have been close; having been leading for the first 2 miles similar to Jane, Jon had to settle for the runners-up spot for the fourth time! A double 2nd male/female for Tewkesbury is wonderful and supporting a local charity event more so. The dung was a bonus.
