Parkrun social, XC and a Club Record for Dave Bell
- brian17harris
- 2 hours ago
- 5 min read
**********************CLUB SOCIAL PARKRUN*****************
Feeling it was time for another social, the committee (well mostly Luke) figured we’d get more of you to come along to a Cirencester parkrun than to drinks after Tuesday training session, and this proved to be the right call. More than 30 members and their families gathered to run/volunteer and then chat/drink coffee afterwards.
That it was bright and dry for a change (although misty see the 2nd photo below) must have helped as even those nursing hangovers made the effort. The pause in the rain also meant less chance of getting drenched from traffic passing along the main road on the far side of the course (like last week) but the stretch between the firm path and the “orchard” was still muddy-slippery.
At the sharp end, Rich Allen and Rob Forbes battled it out for 2nd place behind a younger visitor over from New Zealand. Honours eventually went to Rob who credited this to his shoes with claws in, giving him better traction over the muddy stretch (mentioned above). He is a few years younger though, so Rich’s age grading was slightly better (whilst Kate Kilby once again took the overall highest age-graded score for the day).
Ian Barrett incorporated his parkrun into his Advent Accumulator target of 13k, and to the editor’s knowledge is the only other member still on track with this challenge apart from Annie Campbell. Good luck to them both as it gets to successive daily half-marathons or more just at the start of Christmas week.
Dave Wright had another strong enjoyable run (virtually same age-grading as Rob/Rich) whilst Howard Ewan shrugged off a heavy night out on Friday to stay 7 seconds ahead of Brian Harris having his first hard run since his marathon last weekend.
At least 4 families had 3 members running, and Susanna Austin made it for her first run after 3 weeks off for illness.
With Jo Musk unable to run, Kate Jacobs kindly acted as surrogate mother to under-10 Brecon, pacing him and indeed from the photo below successfully showing him what good form looks like. Fun fact – their age-graded scores were almost identical so those tables predict that a 9-year old boy should be as fast as a late-40’s lady.
Thanks to everyone, especially those who aren’t regular parkrunners, for turning out – it was hard to miss the club presence (Ed. - a friend from RSE certainly noticed).
{Ed again - although exceedingly few would bother checking, if they did they’d see the club took 8/10 of the top age-graded slots – the whizzy NZ guy and one RSE interloper spoiling the clean sweep ;-) }.
Lots of photos taken by (sadly still injured) Luke will be on cllub facebook site.
Cirencester: 2 Rob Forbes 18.51, 3 Rich Allen 18.57, 9 Ian Barrett 21.39, 12 Dave Wright 22.01,17 Casey Vatcher 22.41, 22 Howard Ewan 23.19, 23 Brian Harris 23.26, 28 Clare Stickney 24.04,33 Brecon Musk (J) 24.44, 34 Kate Jacobs 24.45, 39 Stephen Hale 25.14, 40 Rachel Ranger 25.15,53 Kate Kilby 26.27, 64 Jonathan Higgs 27.01, 67 Susanna Austin 27.16, 76 Bill Leggate 27.48,78 Fi Collings 28.02, 80 Alan McAdam 28.06, 82 Brendan McCarthy 28.12, 88 Tom Morgan 28.36,92 Rachel McAdam 28.58, 102 Ann Sherrington 29.47, 118 Pam Wheeler 31.13,123 Kirsty Leggate 31.45, 127 Amanda Naylor 32.28, 169 finished.
**************************other PARKRUNS*****************
In news from other parkrun locations, congratulations to Paul Timms for his 22.56 at Tetbury, making it not only his fastest 5k of the year, but by the merest whisker his best EVER age-graded parkrun (from almost 200). Well done Paul!
And reporting on her daughter’s run at Weston-Super-Mud, Vicki Mason sent us this
“Sophi's a keen parkrunner and has improved her PB considerably over the last few weeks.
From a time of 27:22 set in the spring, she achieved a new PB 4 weeks ago which motivated her and she's chipped away at her time, achieving new PB’s each week.
Today we picked a flat course for its potential, which she smashed in 25:24!”
Sophi is still only 11 and already has 73 parkruns under her belt. After a stand-out run of 27:38 at Chipping Sodbury in March last year, it wasn’t until this March that she lowered that PB by 16s. But whatever the training sessions have included over the last few months they seem to have put a rocket under her, as she completely skipped 26 minutes to run 25.XX for each of the last 3 weeks. Brilliant progress, although possibly time now for a few easy weeks to see the year out?
Tetbury: 28 Paul Timms 22.56, 139 Samantha Timms 30.05, 142 Ben Hilditch 30.26,143 Angela Hilditch 30.27, 200 finished.
Weston-super-Mare, Marine Parade: 83 Sophi Mason (J) 25.24, 247 finished.
Three Brooks, Bradley Stoke, Bristol: 295 Ruth Fulford 35.02, 355 finished.
Saturday 13th – Oxford Mail XC league
Congratulations to under-9 Florence Tanner, almost the youngest member of the club, for being the only junior to travel to Horspath near Oxford for the 2nd in the Oxfordshire series of XC races.
U9 Boys / Girls (1.2km)
31 Florence Tanner 7.40
Sunday 14th – Glos County XC league
Dorian Matts will report later on how the dozen or so juniors expected to be participating got on – official results are likely to be rather slow to emerge.
Disappointingly, the only seniors to run were Aaron Willis (below) and Dorian himself. Aaron liked the course and rated his run at a pace of 6.02/mile for the 6.3 miles as "decent".
************Sunday 14th Telford 10k ****************
Dave Bell finished the year with another great performance. Having run his fastest half marathon since 2019 earlier this year, on Sunday he achieved the same for the 10k distance, in Telford this weekend with a time of 33:10 – here’s his Strava comment
Pleased with that! 😁 Fastest 10k for about 7 years I think. The depth of field is insane! 🤯 Finished 203rd and 11th V40. Bumped into Marc Scott and Melissa Courtney-Bryant at the end too 👍🏻”
Congratulations on a fine run Dave. {Ed. – definitely a high-class field – given that Dave’s impressive 82.6% age-graded time (his highest for 7 years) only placed him 11th in his age group.}
UPDATE - EDITOR APOLOGIES DAVE - I INITIALLY MISSED THAT THIS WAS A NEW CLUB V40 RECORD!!
And over in Spain, David Moss and friends ran a half marathon
Malaga Half Marathon, Spain, 13.1 miles road
1 Nabil Chahboun (Utrecht, Holland) 1.07.59
2227 David Moss (Cirencester AC) 1.47.36
8907 finished
OTHER NEWS
We occasionally share spectacular scenery photos not race-related – several contacts of mine recorded the spectacular sunrise this morning (14th) - the shot below is courtesy of Nicola Wood.
Lastly, thanks to Liza Darroch for bringing the following to my attention.
Long-time members of the club, or anyone who has read Roman Steps, will know of the remarkable athlete V45 Ellen Leggate (now a 2nd claim member). Now running for Cambridge & Coleridge , her daughter Jenny U23 is also runs for the same club (mother/daughter have run 16.38/16.24 respectively for 5k this year).
They both ran the Great Eastern run HM in Peterborough on 12th October in around 81.17, which means that after due process and validations, they should be credited by the Guiness book of world records with the fastest mother-daughter half-marathon (adding the two times together).