Staverton 10

The Staverton 10 mile race has recently become a regular fixture in the local race calendar for the winter period. Based at Staverton airport and hosted by CLC Striders, the run features two laps around the surrounding area. Taking place in late January, the run appeals to those with spring marathons and half-marathons as their season’s goal – and what better way to feel how the training is working than this race-pace endurance test.

Soon into a headwind, Tewkesbury’s lead runner, Matt Flynn, settled down at his sub 6 minute mile pace and showed the form that gave him Parkrun and 10km PBs already this year. Matt’s fitness over the last 8 months has been incredible and by crossing the finish line in 57:42 minutes, means there could be a half-marathon PB time in the near future.

With Matt’s scintillating sub60 leading the way, Shona Crombie-Hicks started her campaign to retain her Gloucestershire county champion title.

Shona has recently been finding her feet as she hopes to be in good shape for her Manchester Marathon exploits; starting off at a decent pace, she became aware of competition on her shoulder after a few miles – it transpired to be one of the neighbouring Worcestershire club’s in-form leading runners who surprisingly pushed a harder pace over the later miles when she could smell her PB and a women’s victory. Shona kept her in-sight but had to settle for the runners-up spot.

Looking to revenge his recent 5 mile battle with Nigel Tillott, Simon Meadows set-off strongly; having a week to look back on the close Linda Franks 5 contest, Simon bravely set a pace that Nigel spurned at from the first mile.

Although Nigel kept his pace during the last 3 miles which saw most runners drop off, Simon had enough gap to enjoy seeing the finish line and successfully take his revenge. Nigel cut 68 minutes, which isn’t his personal best however, it is very good form for the V55 runner. Anxious Jon Mansfield took to the start line after a month off suffering a flu virus so bad, that not only was he off his food, but he also missed the club’s Christmas party!

Jon set-off with Nigel and found himself uncomfortably overdressed after 5 miles – after whipping off his base layer, he continued ahead of Nigel trying to close the gap to Simon.

Re-joining club member Jay Russell proved his running is returning with a fine effort, while Ian Caley ran another surprisingly good race – the 50 year old has started 2020 with the increasingly good form that lifted him high in 2019.

10 miles is a tough distance and once the body has raced past the 45 minute mark, the mind is constantly sending polite requests to the body to slow down, however, on the back of his pleasing LF5 run, Craig Prosser determinedly set himself a 1:25 hr goal for the 10 mile challenge – and like clockwork, he ticked off the miles and impressed with a perfect race.

Impressing everyone and surprising onlookers with an amazing performance was Linzi Dyer. Linzi breezed over the, quite shocking, muddy farm track that runners encountered twice and blanked-out the steaming manure heap and strongly ran in behind Shona as Tewkesbury’s second lady.

In his second event for Tewkesbury this month, Gordon Dennis impressed with a bronze position in his competitive age category.

Despite clocking a decent time for the ten, Linda Younger did not enjoy it! Extra kudos for Linda doing so well considering.

Phillip Prince featured and hoped to start the year meaning business; although he nailed it, he later reported medial collateral ligament damage so could be on the side-lines for a couple of months.

Chris Nicholls ran a comfortable race, he opted to run nearer his marathon pace with his Vegan Runners group.

Cameron Pay and Sheena Mosely teamed-up successfully and worked together to finish in good shape.

Laura Kent was another runner who wasn’t too pleased about the mud and leaking manure splashing over her colourful calf socks! Laura kept a steady pace during the early stages before pushing on and finishing in tidy form.

Samantha Robinson paired with Emma Smith and as they did at the LF5. With Emma becoming more and more frequent both at training and racing, they helped each other through the tougher sections including the South-West headwind and the bridge over the A40 that, although was a small incline, it felt a BIG incline! Emma felt she started-off too fast, however, still had enough for a sprint finish... but not enough to take on Sam!!!