We’re almost out of holiday season now and that was reflected in the number of events with RFRC representation last week with a total of 8 races, although that includes doubles at Bridgwater (half marathon and 10k) and the Albion Running Mendip Marauder (30 and 50 miles).
The last few years have seen a big increase in the number of ultra marathons that club members sign themselves up for, sometimes very quickly regretting having done so! Races of any distance are tough in their own way but ultra marathons by virtue of their extreme duration offer a really ‘special’ level of pain and suffering. The challenge is also usually amplified by choosing difficult terrain. We had representation at four ultra events last week. Two in Somerset and two in Wales. Neither are known for their flatness.
Starting with Somerset, the Mendip Marauder is a combined 30 mile and 50 mile event organised by the club’s own Dave Urwin under the auspices of Albion Running, who offer a hugely popular set of races across the year. The ‘shorter’ race saw four of our ultra marathon regulars taking part, all making good time and led home by Andy Burgess in 6h02m, then Mercedes Thorne in 6h44m, who just nipped across the line ahead of Dave Loader in 6h45m, and Peter Hall completed the set in 7h34m. The sole club entry in the 50-miler was Matt Blee who finished the epic undertaking in 11h58m.
Over in Wales, Andy Higham ticked off another national park in his ongoing quest to run an ultra in them all. The Ridum ultra is a 32-miler over hilly terrain with a punchy 6,000ft of ascent, which Andy got around in 7h21m. Dean Bennett, who is on a really impressive string of wins and high placings, took on the frankly scary GB Ultras Snowdon 50-miler. This is a mountainous route with terrain which is at times un-walkable let alone un-runnable, and has a total ascent of over 13,000 feet. Dean quickly established himself amongst the front runners, which he maintained throughout the race to finish in 5th place with a time of 12h06m.
Richie Hill was also in action over in Hampshire taking on the Andover Trail events ‘On Trails’ marathon, completing the distance in 6h05m.
Darren Purchase was in London taking on Mo Farah and a few thousand others in the Big Half. At one stage (well, the start) Darren was within 30 minutes of Mo, but the gap extended a little more once Darren actually stated the race! Nonetheless he completed the course in a very creditable 2h04m.
We had 6 runners at the combined Bridgwater half marathon and 10k, split evenly between the events. Both courses are largely quick and flat on country roads well suited to road running. In the half, Emily Macaulay was first back for the club in 2h02m, followed by Chris Adams wearing bib number ‘1’ (no pressure Chris!) in 2h08m and then Paula McShane in 2h17m. Over the 10k distance our first finisher was Kevin Garner who took the age category win in 46m05s, with Pate Date not far behind in 50:54 and Dan Devlin just over the hour 1h00m56s.
Numbers at parkrun were also up compared with August where we had 28 RFRCers at Longrun Meadow, as well as travelers to Minehead, Lanhydrock, Penrose, Tewksbury, Worthing and Aberbeeg.