Whilst the national media were predictably covering the 20th anniversary of Parkrun, they inevitably missed arguably the weekend’s bigger running story – super vet and club legend David Wright nabbing Tony Shelbourn’s 13 year-old MV65 half marathon record
The Solent HM is run over a nice course winding through the New Forest.
Despite struggling slightly over the last 3 rolling miles, David still slashed almost 4 minutes off the old record of 1:36:04, finishing in 1:32:17. He didnt mention problems featured in the rather unusual warning on the race website
“the race is run through the New Forest which is shared by lots of horses, cows, pigs and other animals. Please respect this, and make sure you give these animals space if you see them stampeding.”
Congratulations to David, who also broke the 10-mile record in January this year.
Marathons
Gary Wood was the club’s sole runner in the Chester marathon, his 10th time at this friendly and very well organised event (he highly recommends it). His run up to the race was far from ideal - following a bad chest infection and Covid, at the start of this year he couldn’t run for more than a minute, and had to do a couch to 5k program. Nevertheless, the first 18 miles went very well. The remainder was harder, and whilst his finishing time of 4:58:15 was an hour slower than his PB at Chester 5 years ago, he enjoyed it regardless “I was very happy to be there and finish. I was smiling most of the run and especially the last mile.” Good job !
Also running an Autumn marathon, but on a coastal route in Lisbon (Portugal), Harrie Siebenaller-Weir, herself a sub 3:25 marathoner, paced one of her friends to a very respectable first-time marathon in 4:17:24.
Parkrun
Some members ventured further afield this week, with the Macadams in Hereford and Kirsty Leggate in Harlow.
Leading those staying local was Rob Forbes who bagged a great win at Cirencester in 18:06, more than a minute ahead of former member Marc Fallows and his son in 5th/4th. Two younger Forbes also finished very close together – Heidi and Heath.
Dorian Matts reports using his parkrun outing as a warm up for next weekend’s 1st Cross-Country race. News of that went next time......
Cirencester: 1 Rob Forbes 18.06, 52 Isabel Gaeney 25:30, 56 Dorian Matts 26.17, 61 Heidi Forbes (J) 26.28, 63 Heath Forbes (J) 26.30, 97 Pam Wheeler 29.17, 122 Angela Hilditch 31:07, 146 Ruth Fulford 34.29, 195 finished.Lydiard Park, Swindon: 44 Corinne Clark 22.58, 105 Gordon Jones 26.03, 397 finished.
Seven Fields, Swindon: 66 David Moss 28.14, 180 finished.Stratford Park, Stroud: 35 Stephen Hale 26.17, 116 finished.Kingsway, Gloucester: 27 Paul Timms 24.01, 187 finished.Hereford: 74 Alan McAdam 25.46, 105 Rachel McAdam 27.39, 204 finished.
Harlow: 121 Kirsty Leggate 30.15, 248 finished.Curl Curl, Sydney, Australia: 26 Sophie Chudley 20.39, 423 finished
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