Before word on results from this weekend, a late but stunning piece of news from last week.
Rob Forbes completed the gruelling Arc of Attrition race in Cornwall finishing in third place overall. The 100 mile race covers the South West Coast Path from Coverack to Pothtowan and features over 4000 metres of elevation gain.
The winner, Mark Darbyshire, beat his own course record to finish in under 19 hours. Rob's own spectacular time of 20:30:15 would have been good enough to win the race in 6 of the last 8 years.
Many congratulations to Rob.
Closer to home, Sunday saw the Boddington 10 mile race take place. This was the first in the club road race competition for this year and the second in the county series and there were some fantastic results for CAC.
First home was Mike Hobbs. Mike finished just outside his sub 65 target but reports his legs feeling a bit 'flat' from the outset. Still a fabulous run and he looks forward to Bourton, Bath Half and the London Marathon in the coming weeks and months.
Jo Musk had a great morning and smashed her target. She reports "I was over the moon with my race at Boddington 10. I was more than 2 minutes ahead of my target and felt really strong and controlled throughout. I ran a really big negative split and ran my fastest mile by far in the tenth mile."
"I'm definitely feeling strong and feel like my marathon training is going well - I'm starting to feel a bit like my old self, getting some speed back in the legs. It really helped having both Dave Wright and Brian Harris to race on the day. Dave was a brilliant target for me - 50m down the road for the whole thing until I closed up and got past him at mile 8. We'll be head to head again at Bourton 10k in a few weeks time. Bring it on!"
Dave, Brian and Charlotte Wilton finished close behind Jo. Dave's superb 1.08.23 finish brings him a new club MV65 10 mile record. Congratulations to him.
Brian enjoyed the near perfect conditions on the day. He felt unsure as to how things would go as he shakes off the effects of recent Covid. He was pleased to break 70 minutes which bodes well for a decent time at the Bramley 20 in a couple of weeks. Charlotte also ran inside 70 minutes.
Our final three finished within a few places of each other shortly afterwards. Dave Moss finished inside 1:20. Rachel Ranger, urged on by 'coach' Kate Sackett right behind her, ran a new 10 mile PB having never raced over that distance before.
Whilst it is very early days, those excellent performances, combined with results from the Linda Franks 5 last week, mean that CAC athletes are well placed in individual age groups in the county competition and our ladies top the leader board in both the Open and Veteran team competition.
Check out the Glos AAA Athletics4u website for a full list of current standings and details of all the races in the series for this year. The events are local and very varied. Perhaps you would like to enter some?
28th January, Boddington 10, 10 miles, road
1 Michael Kallenburg (Swansea Harriers) 51.19
42 Michael Hobbs (Cirencester AC) 1.05.27
53 Joanna Musk 1.07.38
60 David Wright 1.08.23 – MV65 Club Record
63 Brian Harris 1.09.01
68 Charlotte Wilton 1.09.49
105 David Moss 1.19.48
111 Rachel Ranger 1.20.50
113 Kate Sackett 1.21.02
186 finished
Also on Sunday, but on very different terrain, was the challenging Slaughterford 9. This Chippenham Harriers race is described as 9 miles of steeply undulating countryside with a sting in the tail!
Aaron Willis, heavily into his marathon training, swapped tarmac for trails reports that he ran a sensible first half of the race and then started picking runners off. The plan obviously worked as Aaron was 4th overall and 1st veteran.
Next came Andy Hindson, no stranger to some hills, in 1:22. Jos Randall summarised her race in one short sentence "I love a hilly one, but that was very tough". Tanya Everett put her training in recent cross country races to good use. She reports that it was a very friendly event with plenty of marshals making it easy to navigate. Undulating was the right description with a tough uphill finish having waded through a river. Not one for the faint hearted.
28th January, Slaughterford 9, 9 miles, trail
1 Aiden Daniel (Team Bath AC) 54.46 (54.46)
4 Aaron Willis (Cirencester AC) 1.00.13 (1.00.12) – 1st MV40
126 Andrew Hindson 1.22.01 (1.21.47)
204 Jocelyn Randall 1.33.38 (1.33.28)
233 Tanya Everett 1.40.06 (1.39.56)
295 finished
Also on the trails was James Widdowson. He took on the Leicestershire Three Peaks, a race run three times a year. The 16 mile route is focused on Leicestershire's highest peaks and oldest granite outcrops lending what James describes as a very gothic feel. He enjoyed the weather and the company of a university friend, both of which helped as he pushed himself to his longest run in 4 years. He says that "special burn" over the last 2km brought back memories of past achievements.
Well done James. Sounds like it was a grand day out.
27th January, Leicestershire 3 Peaks, 16 miles, trail
1 Fraser Rounds 2.04.11
52 James Widdowson (Cirencester AC) 3.23.18
95 finished
Lots of strong parkrun performances below but a very noteworthy one was Holly Willis at Exmouth.
Holly is just weeks into being a new mum to baby Maddie who arrived in December and still managed a 23 minute parkrun!
27th January, parkrun, 5k trail
Lydiard parkrun
1 Harry Woods 15.55
124 Gordon Jones (Cirencester AC) 26.15
420 finished
Eden Project parkrun
1 Dylan Stevens 16.49
55 Alan McAdam (Cirencester AC) 24.30
67 Rachel McAdam 24.49
255 finished
Chippenham parkrun
1 Ollie Campbell (Cirencester AC) 17.52
221 finished
Exmouth parkrun
1 Olly Morris 16.24
101 Holly Willis (Cirencester AC) 23.18
440 finished
Cirencester parkrun
1 Tobi Loughlin 17.52
3 Ian Barrett (Cirencester AC) 19.49
4 Kate Jacobs 20.06 – 1st Lady
10 Wendy Nicholls 21.29 – 3rd Lady
42 Paul Timms 24.14
67 Josh Finn Neal 26.19
78 Dorian Matts 27.38
80 Tom Morgan 27.56
87 Jocelyn Randall 28.15
95 Brendan McCarthy 28.33
118 Pamela Wheeler 29.55
127 Kirsty Leggate 30.44
134 Gary Wood 31.21
135 Samantha Timms 31.38
160 Aaron Willis 33.24
196 finished
Seven Fields parkrun
1 James Lovell 19.20
12 Corinne Clark (Cirencester AC) 21.32 – 2nd Lady
50 David Moss 25.41
165 finished
If you want to guarantee a mention of your race result in the report then please, please, please send your result to Martin at cirenacresults@gmail.com and if you have words or pictures to add some colour then send them to Rachel at rachelelisabethbarrow@hotmail.co.uk or via the group WhatsApp
After two and a half years, Rachel would like to step back from writing the report as at the end of March. A slightly bigger work commitment and some weekly granny day care duties starting in April will have a bit of an impact on time available.
Is there anybody out there who fancies taking it on? Contact Rachel if you'd like to know a bit more about what's involved. Some clairvoyant ability would be a definite advantage as not everyone is very forthcoming with their news. If you follow lots of your clubmates on Strava anyway or enjoy stalking people online you can pick up snippets that way and then pester them to stop being quite so modest. There are ways and means!