The club had a preponderance of road races last week, which is probably for the best given the weather we’ve been having, although there were still hills aplenty for some.
Sunday saw a fine contingent of 13 club members racing the Bideford 10-miler. The largely flat course along the River Torridge estuary saw some very quick times for the RFRCers, including a few age group placings. First back for RFRC was Ali Bisatt in a blistering time of 1h7m, enough to bag him 3rd in age group. Not far behind was Ben Timpson with a fine performance to finish in 1h8m. He was followed in by two other age group winners. Hannah Kirkman placing 2nd in a time of 1h20m, and also placing second was Nigel Baker in 1h25m. We then had a cluster of finishers who were led back by Lauren Clarke in 1h42m and next was Lucy Stancer in 1h44m before the trio of Sherri Dingle, Karen Chapman and Emma Salter all crossed the line in 1h47m. Rachel Nicholls was well under the 2-hour mark in a time of 1h51m, with Eliza Brodie just over it in 2h02m. The RFRC results finished with almost namesakes Rachel Reid (2h07m) and Sarah Reed (2h16m).
We were meant to have 4 participants at the Cornish marathon but unfortunately one tested positive for Covid, which left Bev Collins, Mark Wilson and Peter Hall to represent the club at the event. Mark produced a terrific performance to finish in 3h43m and grabbed himself a well earned genuine Cornish pasty. Bev was second back for the club, followed by Peter in a reprise of his 100th marathon in 2018 to register his 133rd marathon and ultra finish.
Bucking this week’s road running trend was Dan Devlin who relished the rain, puddles, mud and hills in the Haldon Forest 10k, finishing in 1h20m to receive a well deserved bag of goodies.
A higher than average level of exoticness to parkrun this week – we had the typical attendance of local course including Burham, Exmouth and 19 at Longrun Meadow. Branching out a little further there were also RFRCers at Bowling Park (Bradford), Dulston Country Park and the Eden Project. Further still we had a presence at the Castlerea parkrun in Ireland, but lastly and taking it to the next level one club member made it all the way down under to the event at Burnie in Australia. #runninguk #parkrun