A little bit of parkrun history made, but otherwise a quiet week for racing

Whilst our weekly report is primarily about club members running exploits, it would be remiss not to mention a little piece of Parkrun history being made - by an outstanding course PB for RSE’s star veteran Sharon Smith,

On our not particularly fast home course, Sharon who turned 75 this year (per Runbritain) finished just behind Rachel Ranger, in an awesome 23:54. Not only did this score >100% using Parkrun’s age-grading system, but it was the 8^th fastest parkrun of all time by an LV75!

As Kate Kilby observed “I want whatever she is taking” ;-))

Rachel Ranger continued her purple patch of parkrun results with her 3^rd run in a row over 73% age-graded, just 6 seconds off her course PB and best-ever age-graded result set 5 weeks ago. Despite, or maybe because of, taking a year off from the county road racing circuit after last year’s success, Rachel is slightly faster this year than last, at least over the parkrun distance.

After a tentative parkrun last week testing her recovery from injury, Kate Kilby was back much closer to her best form with an 85% plus age-graded run this week, and more importantly with no immediate pain afterwards. Let’s hope this augurs well for the county road league Bugatti next Wednesday (good luck to all our runners competing there).

Jon Young completed his 1^st parkrun as a V60, starting off pretty quickly, leaving Brian Harris (who was running, rather than re-hab walking, his 1^st parkrun this year) struggling to catch up and then keep up as they ran most of the not-race together. Jon graciously let Brian out-sprint him to the line, but finished just inside 23 minutes which was his best-ever age-graded time at just over 70% - congratulations Jon.

Also running were two former members Joe Barrowclough (4^th) and Ivan Quinlan. {Ed. -if any member reading this is in contact with them, please ask either them if they want to re-join.}

Away from home, congratulations to Ollie Campbell for winning at Chippenham.

Similarly to Rachel, for the third week in a row improving Steve Hale ran at his new sub-24 minute pace, this time at Sutcliffe rather than Stonehouse – great consistency Steve.

A consistency shout-out also goes to Richard Edwards, who managed to clock the exact same time for the third week in a row, all at different courses (with thanks to Rachel M for confirming this had in fact been done before, whether purposely or not).

James Thomas recommends the one-lap route at Newbury, where he was at the top-10 sharp end in a rather large field of over 500.

Cirencester: 23 Brian Harris 22.49, 24 Jon Young 22.52, 35 Rachel Ranger 23.50,41 Kate Kilby 24.03, 99 Susanna Austin 27.40, 115 Brendan McCarthy 28.53,126 Gordon Jones 29.27, 137 Pam Wheeler 30.04, 254 finished.Tetbury: 83 Jo Roberts 28.59, 84 Lara Tompson 28.59, 103 Martin Croucher 30.26,123 Alan Tompson 31.54, 193 finished.Swindon, Lydiard Park: 146 Rachel McAdam 26.26, 228 Alan McAdam 29.23, 453 finished.Chippenham: 1 Ollie Campbell 17.30, 299 finished.Newbury: 6 James Thomas 18.25, 554 finished.Minehead: 11 Edward Knight (J) 20.33, 198 finished.Bridport, St Mary’s: 101 Richard Edwards 28.03, 224 finished.Sutcliffe, Eltham, Kent: 81 Stephen Hale 23.33, 279 finished.Woolwich, Thames Path: 93 Phil Davey 26.03, 315 finished.Amsterdamse Bos, Netherlands: 26 Paul Timms 23.32, 102 finished.

APART FROM PARKRUNS ?

So far we only know of one race this week involving members – the Standish Woodland Chase which is one of several races regularly put on by Stroud AC.

It’s mostly on hilly woodland trails, over a course of almost 10 miles following parts of the Cotswold Way between Painswick and Stonehouse. Last year there were no club members in the 110 finishers. This year Andy Hindson flew the flag.

At the time of going to press the official results weren’t out.

FINALLY - DO YOU COME TO TUESDAY SESSIONS?

If so, can you please make sure that you have the Spond App on your phone and in particular that you have completed the emergency contact details. At our recent committee meeting we noted that many members are not signing into every session, but the App will still be very useful in case of an emergency so we contact somebody for you. If you can't work out how to fill in the missing details, ask for help next time you come along please.