Phil Davey kicks off a new Parkrun venue plus Clare & Andy's marathons
- brian17harris
- Oct 20
- 6 min read
PARKRUN NEWS
After the celebrity attendance at last week’s Parkrun in Cirencester, this weekend we had more exciting parkrun news. Club member Phil Davey was instrumental in setting up the inaugural run at a brand new parkrun venue.
After all his hard work, Phil had the privilege to act as Race Director – we have a race report below from Rich Allen who won the event, thereby becoming, at least for a week, the course record holder.
“Kilkenny Lane Country Park is located just outside Carterton in West Oxfordshire, approx. 35 mins drive from Ciren. I’ve walked my dog there many times over the years and always thought it would be a great venue for a parkrun.
Looking to mix-up my Saturday parkrun fix, I stumbled across Kilkenny Lane on the parkrun website, and assumed it must have been a relatively new addition as I hadn’t seen it before. It wasn’t until the pre-race brief (it’s not a race) that I learned it was the first ever to be held there, and that fellow Cirencester AC member and parkrun legend, Phil Davey, was the RD (great brief by the way Phil!).
It was a relatively small turnout (214), as to be expected, but everyone was in great spirits, and the shiny new team of volunteers were just as excited as the runners to be a little part of parkrun history.
The course itself is a flat and fast 2-laps around the perimeter of the park, on compacted gravel paths for the most part, with a small section on grass. I felt like it was potential PB territory so gave it my best, but finding myself out on my own pretty much from the off, I probably didn’t push myself as hard as I could have. Still, I finished in a time of 17:53, so not to be sniffed at, and was given a lovely warm welcome through the finishing funnel by a big group of enthusiastic volunteers.
Overall, it was a great parkrun, really well organised and supported, and would highly recommend. Well done Phil, keep up the good work.”
Thanks for that Rich and congratulations on a cracking time - your 2nd equal best ever parkrun (Severn Bridge's 17.27 is going to be hard to beat).
Back in Cirencester, Rob Forbes was first member home, pacing his son and former junior member Heath (or was it the other way around) to a new PB. Not far behind Toby Conway improved his PB to 20.31 and Steve Hale logged a course PB with 24.01.
Dorian Matts was running as preparation for his next XC, as he had run out of steam at last weekend’s. Dorian noticed a couple of our younger members running who have still not updated their profiles to be Ciren AC: Poppy Graham, who just beat him and did a 2 minute PB, and Emilie Zaparka who recognises she needs to build her aerobic fitness - she ran with Paul Robertson’s daughter, Iris. Paul overtook Dorian...
“encouraging some big young chap to a big PB so the coaches were doing their bit for runners’ performances! Heath Forbes missed 20minutes by 8 seconds- he didn’t blame his dad for holding him up though! NB incredibly, I was lapped by the winner while still running lap 2 along by the Tetbury Road!”
It’s been a while since both Campbell brothers were in the same results report, but Ollie picked up another win in Exeter, whilst Luke was taking it a bit more steady whilst testing out an ankle he had injudiciously damaged playing football 3 weeks ago [when do you get too old for football ;-)? ].
Even by her own high standards Kate Kilby was back on top notch form at Yarborough in Lincoln with her time of 23.20 scoring over 88% age-graded. She’s only run a bit faster than that 2/3 times over the last 2/3 years. Great run Kate. and hopefully a super confidence booster ahead of New York marathon in a few weeks - best of luck to you and Andy!
18 October Parkruns
Carterton, Kilkenny Lane (Inaugural Run) : 1 Rich Allen 17.53, 184 Colin Tapley 40.11, 214 finished.
Cirencester: 7 Rob Forbes 20.09, 11 Toby Conway (J) 20.31, 40 Stephen Hale 24.01,48 Rachel Ranger 24.44, 70 Susanna Austin 26.21, 76 Brendan McCarthy 26.31,107 Dorian Matts 27.35, 128 Gordon Jones 28.34, 147 Pam Wheeler 29.23,148 Ann Sherrington 29.29, 169 Kirsty Leggate 30.13, 193 Angela Hilditch 31.21, 286 finished.
Tetbury: 17 Luke Campbell 23.21, 98 Richard Edwards 33.03, 146 finished.
Swindon, Lydiard Park: 87 David Moss 25.01, 465 finished.
Cheltenham, King George V Playing Field: 61 Alan McAdam 27.20, 67 Rachel McAdam 28.03, 127 finished.
Exeter, Greendale Farm Shop: 1 Ollie Campbell 18.46, 174 finished.
Lincoln, Yarborough Leisure Centre: 49 Kate Kilby 23.20, 209 finished.
AUTUMN MARATHON SEASON
Two members were tackling marathons this weekend - Clare Stickley her first at Abingdon, and Andy Duff his second at York.
New member Clare Stickney had been running parkrun since 2018, but only started racing other distances after finally joining the club this year. Originally one of three club FV45’s entered for the Abingdon Marathon, due to injury Clare was the only one actually making to the start line. We reported 3 weeks ago on her rather unconventional last long run into which she sandwiched the hilly Bourton half.
Clare felt great for the first half, logging Strava PB’s for multiple distances including 1.37.24 for the Half. However, in wet and windy conditions the second half proved more of a challenge and she found it hard to stomach the gels.
Nevertheless, her time of 3.36.02 was an impressive debut at the marathon distance, putting her in the top 20 ladies in club history.
Congratulations Clare – your (all-runner?) family must be really proud!
19 October Abingdon Marathon
528 Clare Stickney (Cirencester AC) 3.36.02
1014 finished www.abingdonmarathon.org.uk
Andy Duff sent this report in on his 2nd marathon this year.
"My original plan for Yorkshire marathon was a 3:15, which was going to be a big improvement on Manchester in April.
Recent results had boosted my confidence and training had gone well over the last couple of months, so I had started to believe a 3:10 was possible with my current form, if all went well on the day. By the time I lined up for the race I was 100% dialled in to running 3:10, with a vague plan B, that hopefully I could salvage a 3:15 if that was outside my reach and didn’t blow up completely. What I hadn’t appreciated was the taxing gradient changes between 15 and 20 miles. I was keeping to schedule at 20 miles, but it wasn’t long after that, when my legs decided they would not be going any faster. Talent level had been reached! 3:10 started to slip away, with every stride that shortened, but 3:15 was hanging like a carrot on a stick.
Brutally the 26mile marker is at the top of the steepest incline of the day.. it finished a few people off and I had pain etched across my face as I went over the top with 3:15:00 on my watch.. why do we need the next 219 yrds? It seems so cruel!
Anyway, I crossed the finish line before it changed to 3:16 and I am super happy with that, I know I did everything I could for that 3:10, not just on the day , but in the last 8 weeks. No regrets.
From a bigger perspective, it was a bit of a family event, with 5 of us running on the day and lots of family support on the road. The event was the 5th marathon of the year for my sister, who is doing 6 marathons this year for Myeloma UK in memory of my dad who passed away 2 years ago. It certainly gives you an appreciation for the different reasons people do these big events, and it doesn’t matter what the time is, crossing the finish line is quite a reason to celebrate. "
Many congratulations Andy - 9 minutes off an already respectable marathon PB is a great improvement.
19 October, York Marathon
647 Andy Duff (Cirencester AC) 3.16.30 (3.15.39)
6348 finished
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