.............and everything in between. The bank holiday weekend brought with it some cracking running weather and club members were in action in all kinds of events.
Liza Darroch very successfully completed the Milton Keynes marathon on Monday and tells us here about her day.
“I approached the Milton Keynes marathon somewhat grudgingly. My run at Chester last October could have been enough to qualify for this year’s National Masters Championships but, having failed to “tick the right box”, here I was, having to qualify - again.”
“It didn’t help that both Brian Harris and Nick Wall were vocal in their dislike of the course and the event. But all I needed to do was to finish in under the LV75 qualifying time of 5:30 and, I vowed, to conquer hydration and nutrition, which have always been my weak spot. I started marathon running in the ‘80’s when people didn’t bother about such things.”
“In the end I did the time - running a reasonable first half and pottering round the second including two miles of walking and talking with George who was dressed for the event’s theme in a cow suit. The eating was a mixed success but the course was a revelation - two meandering laps through rolling parks on the outskirts of the town provided lots of variety - lakes, rivers, beautiful lines of willows and poplars and a couple of pretty villages which were traffic free. The support from marshals and spectators was toned down London but always encouraging and frequently very funny and the finish in a massive grass bowl of an amphitheatre worked really well. So, the job was done, the box is now ticked but will I do Chester in the autumn? Hmmm!”
Of course she will! A fantastic result for Liza and an inaugural club V75 marathon record too.
1st May Milton Keynes Marathon, 26.2 miles, road
1 Alan Darby (Ely Runners) 2.30.30 (chip time)
1228 Liza Darroch (Cirencester AC) 5.21.33 – 1st FV75 and inaugural club FV75 record
1390 finished
Tom Payne travelled overseas to put all his hard training to good use in the Isle of Wight Ultra where there was a choice of distances available. Here Tom tells as the story of his run and how club mates have helped him to prepare.
“After lots of long distance training with Karen H over the past months I was finally ready to put it to the test with the Isle of Wight Half Island Ultra. 53KM starting at the Southern tip of IoW heading clockwise, taking in the views (and hills) across to The Needles, into Yarmouth and back across to Cowes.”
“Starting with my brother Simon we found it hard to match pace in the first 10K, separated and decided to race our own races. The very long burn of the cliffs around the Needles proved tough but, overall, l I felt ok for the first half. The second half however was a different story with lots of promenade and tarmac pounding causing a niggle in my quads I’ve not had since 2019 to come back, I soldiered on with the help of Freddie Mercury and my new high sugar/salt favourite Hot Cross Buns with Marmite - getting me to the finish line in 6:31:53, 14th position and taking 44 mins off my 50k PB which I was very happy with!”
“A big thanks to the club for getting me in shape for this race, a special shout out to Karen H for the long run sessions and Leigh for getting me match fit for the day in the gym.”
Congratulations to Tom on a new PB in such a tough event.
29th April Isle of Wight Ultra, 1st Half Island Challenge, 53k multi terrain
1 Jack Faulds 5.26.07
14 Tom Payne (Cirencester AC) 6.31.53
279 finished
In the much shorter and sharper 5K distance, David Wright raced twice in the last week. First in the Lakeside 5k in Portsmouth and, just four days later, at the Frimley 5k which he describes as a bit of a shock to the system being more like a mountain race and long on distance.
These two great performances earned David 1st MV65 spot in both races and his impressive 20.12 finish at Lakeside was just two seconds outside Tony Shelbourn’s MV65 club 5k record.
26th April, Lakeside 5k, 5k, road
1 Onjoro Sumba (Havant AC) 15.40
65 David Wright (Cirencester AC) 20.12 – 1st MV65
127 finished
30th April, Frimley 5k, 5k, road
1 Aaron Webb (Fleet and Crookham AC) 19.27
8 David Wright (Cirencester AC) 22.08 – 1st MV65
160 finished
But even a 5k on the road is not short and sharp enough for Dorian Matts who took part in the 100m and 400m events at the Brewer Memorial Games at the Blackridge Stadium in Gloucester.
Dorian reports that he felt he had a poor start in the 100m having been distracted by the movement of another runner whilst in the set position. He was however very happy with his 74.17 seconds for 400m.
Amongst parkrun results this week, there were age group 1st places for Ruth Fulford at Cirencester and Gordon Jones at Lydiard.
Brecht Grieten ran his best time ever at Cirencester finishing in second spot. Kate Sackett tried Tetbury for the first time and was 2nd lady.
Colin Tapley ran his 75th parkrun. After a trip to London last weekend where Lorna Harris ran her best parkrun time of the year at Clapham, she and Brian were back on home turf. There were also club members on the essential volunteer squad at Cirencester.
29th April, parkrun, 5k trail
Lydiard parkrun
1 Simon Byrne (Unattached) 15.49
82 Gordon Jones (Cirencester AC) 24.30
382 finished
Cirencester parkrun
1 Dan Sault (Unattached) 19.03
2 Brecht Grieten (Cirencester AC) 19.06
26 Paul Timms 23.08
47 Colin Tapley 24.59
85 Jocelyn Randall 28.13
89 Brendan McCarthy 28.42
108 Samantha Timms 30.20
114 Pamela Wheeler 30.48
133 Ruth Fulford 32.45
148 Brian Harris 34.11
147 Lorna Harris 34.11
190 finished
Tetbury Goods Shed parkrun
1 Max Benfield (Unattached) 17.46
33 Kate Sackett (Cirencester AC) 24.21 – 2nd Female
56 David Moss 26.59
113 finished
Please send your news to Rachel at rachelelisabethbarrow@hotmail.co.uk or via WhatsApp. A link to your race results to Martin at cirenacresults@gmail.com as soon as you can is also really helpful.