It was another great sporting weekend when Running Forever members refused to be eclipsed by some bloke driving in a circle or some other blokes with bats. For tales of truly epic feats, read on …
Massive congratulations to Helen Needs who completed her first Ultra at the Race to the Stones 50K event. Despite a tumble early on, Helen found the stones and a lovely bit of bling in 8.14.
Also on the Ultra trail were the intrepid trio of Ali Bisatt, Sam Wharton and Damon Butler who headed to Snowdonia for the very tough Trail Ultra. After a massive amount of running up, running down and wobbling on the edges Ali finished in 7.14 to take 4th in his age group, Sam swept up 5th female finished with her 7.44 and Damon slayed the dragons of last year to cross the line in 10.11.
A little trip in a boat and a bit of a run for Ian Bawler and Rachel Nicholls who travelled to Lundy Island for their 13.5 mile tour of this beautiful place, some beautiful views later Ian finished in 2.40 and Rachel in 3.26.
Making things just slightly trickier, Heather Pearce and Sarah Henderson had to forego the boat and swim between the run legs of the Breca Gower. A total of 37km of running and 5km of swimming, plus 18 transitions between the two, was completed in 9 hours.
The Blackdown Beauty isn’t really a race; it’s more of a scenic run with a cream tea and a few pub stops to break up the miles. These are some of the favourite things of RFRC members so well done to Simon Rowland, Chris Buckman and James Talke who tackled the 19 mile course and to Eliza Brodie who did the 13 mile route and all remembered that in RFRC rule that it’s red before white as far as club scone eating is concerned.
It was off to the Otter Rail and River 10K for Sally Tuer on Sunday where here efforts saw her crossing the line in 56.53 for a 2nd age group place.
Pat Pike took a run up Brean Down and her 1.13 finish in the 10K saw her take the top spot in her age group.
Eight members travelled to Tiverton for the Grand Western Canal Run 10K. There are no official times for this event but our members are well drilled and equipped with their own technology. Tanya Lewis was our first finisher in 49.00, followed by Simon Rowland in 56.42 (despite his 19 miles and 3 scones the day before at the Blackdown Beauty). Malcolm Hutchings (59.40) just pipped Dave Mackenzie (60.00), with Tracey Marshall crossing the line in 67 minutes. Rachel Jones finished in 1.23, with our final duo of Kate Mackenzie & Karen Chapman sticking together to collect their medal in 1.32
Gavin Clegg took 1st M60 place in the Marston Lodge Spartan Sprint 5K which also involved 19 obstacles including a barbed wire crawl and a rope climb!
A quartet of members travelled to Yeovilton on Wednesday night a race in their popular 5K series. Ann-Marie Crampton (24.53) set the pace with Ola Timpson (25.03), Sally Tuer (25.51) and Mercedes Thorne (25.57) hot on her heels.
Parkrun tourists travelled to Black Park. Poole, Winchester, Thornbury, Forest Rec, Burnham and Exmouth. Thirty two took on the local course at Longrun Meadow where Tanya Herbison scored a PB and the first male (Chris Brown) and first female (Caroline Norris) spots were taken by Running Forever members.