Chianti country & a charity fairy
- brian17harris
- 32 minutes ago
- 5 min read
Quite a busy weekend for our members competing over distances from 5 mi to half marathon on road and trail – all today Sunday 22nd.
We'll start with the run that looked the most fun!
Chianti trail half marathon (Italy, obviously)
Angela Hilditch covered just about 3,000ft of elevation in this trail race, and looking at her photos on Strava no wonder her comment was
“Stunning scenery, really fun, very hilly ⛰️🍇”
{Ed. – my apologies to Angela, but when I saw the title of her Strava activity and the 3 hours plus duration, I jumped to the conclusion that multiple wine consumption stops were involved. Given the UMTB badging and the elevation involved it seems safe to venture that this wasn’t the case, although post-race hopefully was another story?}
1 Cesare Maestri (Italy) 1.19.01
839 Angela Hilditch (Cirencester AC) 3.22.20
902 finished www.chianti.utmb.world
Reading Half Marathon
Back in the UK, one of the bigger HM’s (taking more than 15 minutes to cross the start line for some), popular with those training for London (or any Spring) Marathon, saw three club members running.
Susanna sent this report along with photo of her and Jos Randall.
“My Reading half went much better than last year. Finishing in 1.55.23, I started steady but did the last 5k faster than any recent parkrun and still accelerating. The huge, endless hills I remembered from last year didn't seem to be there in the last half hour!
Jos came and joined as part of a marathon training run.
Remembering Nick telling me to lift my knees and Bob saying not to clench our fists helped, as well as lovely encouragement from the club, especially Kate and Karen. Taking my own liquid and electrolytes was a great improvement and it was my first race in the fancy Saucony’s, instead of my usual training shoes.”
Tommy Payne was also running, but for charity in a pink fairy outfit and raised an impressive £5k plus for the National Autistic Society – congratulations on that, and a pretty decent time for a fairy too!
1 Rob Corney (Reading Roadrunners) 1.06.47 (chip 1.06.47)
922 Tommy Payne (Cirencester AC) 1.40.23 (1.39.38)
2865 Susanna Austin 2.03.58 (1.55.23)
4501 Jocelyn Randall 2.22.55 (2.08.59)
7009 finished www.readinghalfmarathon.com
Highworth 5 miles
I think I said this last year, but this used to be quite a popular race with club members (possibly the scene for one of Bill’s club records?) but just two members finished this year. Bill did start, but unfortunately had to withdraw after 2 miles (when he was in 3rd place) with left hamstring/adductor problems. We’ve got our fingers crossed for you Bill – hoping you pulled out early enough.
Pam Wheeler kindly sent this report in
“It has been several years since I last ran the Highworth 5 mile and this the 39th edition had not changed in terms of excellent club organisation, but most notably from my perspective were the far lower number of entries both overall and from club members. Not sure why - any ideas?
But nonetheless it was a great event on a beautiful morning round the country lanes of Highworth. The 'sting in the tail’ at mile 4 was ever present, but I was delighted to have been able to run it all and overtake a few on the way too.
A sight I didn't welcome was Bill jogging back after approx 2 miles having tweaked a hamstring, so it was left to Gordon and myself to fly the flag for the club.
It is a lovely event so hopefully we can achieve a decent turnout in support of the event’s 40th edition next year!”
Pam modestly forgot to omit she finished 1st FV70 - congrats and hope it was a nice prize?
1 Ben Cole (Tonbridge AC) 26.23 (chip 26.21)
64 Pam Wheeler (Cirencester AC) 47.48 (47.41) – 1st FV70
110 Gordon Jones 56.20 (56.12)
132 finished www.highworthrunningclub.co.uk
Forest of Dean Spring Trail Half Marathon
This was an England masters qualifying event on the trails rather than road, but still a strong field to contend with.
Unfortunately Rich Allen was way off his hoped-for pace, feeling sluggish after a couple of weeks of work-induced lower training load. It was still his 3rd fastest HM on Strava.
James Thomas didn’t race the whole way but used it as a training run in his marathon program -
“Mostly at tempo/MP with a kick at the end (last 4 miles) very hilly”
1 Jacob Tasker (Bridgend AC) 1.08.56 (chip 1.08.54)
43 Rich Allen (Cirencester AC) 1.22.52 (1.22.47)
56 James Thomas 1.25.36 (1.25.32)
996 finished www.forestofdean-halfmarathon.co.uk
Gloucester road races
We have no clue how their races went, but Keith Firkin completed the Half M and Amanda Naylor the 10k event, both organised by Runthrough.
********************PARKRUNS 22ND MARCH********************
The wet conditions at Cirencester RAU lead to a rare diversion of the >300 field, but this didn’t stop Karen Higuera, whose hamstring is now behaving, to clock the fastest age-graded performance of the day – congratulations Karen and good luck for Cleevewold next weekend.
Several minutes ahead of Karen on an absolute basis were two of our juniors, Toby Conway and Ed Knight. Toby was just 12 sec ahead of Ed (who is slightly younger). Well done both of them for finishing in the top 10!
Ian Barrett continued his roving, "camouflaged parkrun" campaign, with yet another location sandwiched into a longer run – and again tucking inside 20 minutes despite the extra mileage not being slow.
Cirencester: 8 Toby Conway (J) 21.10, 10 Edward Knight (J) 21.22, 45 Paul Timms 24.42,48 Karen Higuera 24.55, 54 Stephen Hale 25.22, 81 Alan McAdam 26.35, 122 Rachel McAdam 28.31, 207 Kirsty Leggate 33.08, 208 Samantha Timms 33.09,302 Cathie Cowell (tail runner), 302 finished.
Marlborough Common: 21 David Moss 24.21, 126 finished.
Carterton, Kilkenny Lane: 15 Colin Tapley 21.58, 83 Richard Edwards 29.21, 171 finished.
Moreton-in-Marsh, Fire Services College: 6 Ian Barrett 19.59, 119 finished.
Leominster, Queenswood Country Park: 24 Martin Croucher 27.18, 149 finished.
Alnwick, The Pastures: 77 Ruth Fulford 39.54, 89 finished.
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