The weekend saw Rachel Ranger head north to her home turf for the Yorkshire Marathon. She had trained well for her target of sub 4 hours, doing many of her long runs in the company of supportive clubmates. The race set off from the University of York, and passed York Minster where the sound of the bells ringing was really rousing.
Rachel says that she paced the first half perfectly and, apart from sore feet, things were going well. Then, to use her own words, she “got fed up and stopped!” She realised how much her running friends had helped her through the long training miles, she gathered herself, thought of all the support and advice they had given her, and got herself going again. She found other runners to chat to for a few miles as a distraction and used the great crowd support, including a high fiving vicar, to get her to the finish line where things got emotional.
Rachel had set out feeling confident in the hard work she had put in. Her experience highlights what a huge part the mind plays in endurance running.
17th October, Yorkshire Marathon, 26.2 miles, road
1 Tom Charles (Unattached) 2.24.22 (2.24.22)
1,271 Rachel Ranger (Cirencester AC) 4.08.36 (4.07.09)
2,134 finished
A little closer to home, Jos Randall took part in the Oxford Half. Jos felt strong and ran a beautifully even paced race. She says the fantastic crowd support created a great atmosphere to run in and she was rightly thrilled with her 1:53:30 finish time.
17th October, Oxford Half Marathon, 13.1 miles, road
1 Jonathan Cornish (Unknown) 1.07.25
2475 Jocelyn Randall (Cirencester AC) 1.53.31
7192 finished
Queen of the hills, Karen Higuera, completed the scenic Cleevewold race. This is a really hilly, very multi terrain route that takes in some of the highest points in the Cotswold hills on Cleeve Common. The event was rolled over from pre Covid times and Karen didn’t want to waste her entry for this brutal race.
She says she chipped away at the hills and had to dig in for the last four miles, not helped by getting a little lost at the twelve mile point after following other runners. Had Karen not taken this unintended detour she would have had an age group win. The understanding organisers gave her a well deserved prize anyway! She says she enjoyed herself and will be back next year.
At the time of writing, official results had not been published.
Club members were at various local parkruns and further afield in Ireland and Northern Ireland. New club member James Hunton ran 28:39 at Lydiard, after a bit of parkrun admin his future results will be picked up. At Cirencester there was another win for Ian Barrett and another new course PB for Ionel Iancu. Jos Randall came close to her Cirencester best time, no pre half marathon rest day for her! Tom Morgan showed he is back moving well after his mammoth efforts in Manchester just a week before.
16th October, parkrun, 5k, trail
Lydiard parkrun
1 Heath Bampton (Unattached) 18.25
48 David Moss (Cirencester AC) 23.14
71 Gordon Jones 24.25
178 Rachel Jones 31.01
274 finished
Thornbury parkrun
1 Sean Leadbeater (Unattached) 18.40
67 Ruth Fulford (Cirencester AC) 29.17
105 finished
Stonehouse parkrun
1 Andrew Watt (Unattached) 17.00
38 Barbara Thomas (Cirencester AC) 29.17
59 finished
Cabinteely parkrun
1 Liam Blackburn (Unattached) 17.41
35 Ivan Quinlan (Cirencester AC) 24.11
150 finished
Cirencester parkrun
1 Ian Barrett (Cirencester AC) 19.25
14 Ionel Iancu 22.36
40 Jocelyn Randall 26.18
43 Tom Morgan 26.36
46 Brendan McCarthy 27.30
63 Richard Edwards 30.20
118 finished
Tetbury Goods Shed parkrun
1 Marc Fallows (Unattached) 17.21
21 Alan Mcadam (Cirencester AC) 24.14
29 Rachel Mcadam 25.29
98 finished
Crawfordsburn Country parkrun
1 Daniel Scollan (Unattached) 18.06
37 Paul Timms (Cirencster AC) 25.22
68 Sam Timms 31.34
82 finished