After a quiet week last week, there were plenty of events on over this beautiful weekend, for those not plugging away at their long runs in ahead of marathon season (take it easy tomorrow guys!), although the Dorney half (see below) was also a warm-up event for our Newport ladies trio.
Off-road
After being the sole club representative at the Nationals two weeks ago, this weekend Toby Conway (U13) had the honour of representing our county at the Inter-counties cross-country in Nottingham on Saturday 8th over a 3km course, presumably considerably less muddy than a fortnight ago. Well done Toby!
1 Jack Shingler (Gloucestershire) 10.59
288 Toby Conway (Gloucestershire / Cirencester AC) 13.53
Road races (all on Sunday 9th)
Four of our athletes were in action at the out and back, and out and back, etc. Dorney Lake course.
Three of our fastest ladies (pictured below) took advantage of a flat half marathon course to test their progress (or fitness) on their way to the Newport marathon next month.
Kate Jacobs reports that there was a headwind on the return leg, but the course was still flat and fast and she really enjoyed it, taking a podium place and age-group 1st in the process.
Charlotte Wilton also had an excellent run, which was annoyingly less than 10 seconds outside her PB, set 3 years ago. Looks like the interval sessions she has been doing with Kate are paying off.
Corinne Clark was using the race to test her recovery from an injury that forced her to withdraw from the Boddington 10 miler in January. Having done a 59-mile bike ride the day before [Ed. - as you do!] she raced two 3-mile blocks after a steady start. Best of luck Corinne with your continuing recovery and most importantly getting to the marathon start line in good shape.
14 Kate Jacobs (Cirencester AC) 1.26.45 (1.26.43) – 3rd lady / 1st FV45
31 Charlotte Wilton 1.33.01 (1.32.58) – 7th lady
63 Corinne Clark 1.43.09 (1.43.09)
195 finished
Meanwhile, still at Dorney, Dave Bell was having another crack at a sub-33 minute 10k in considerably better conditions than Bourton a few weeks ago. He reports having to ease off and even walk a bit after the 5 mile mark, having suffered from going off slightly too fast. Despite that, he was 2nd in a field of 168 in 35:00, and most likely still faster than any other Cirencester runner so far this year.
In the absence of any results that we can find so far, we understand the club had several runners at the Minchinhampton 10k, described by its organisers as
“a pre-Easter road race on quiet country lanes in and around the beautiful Cotswold town of Minchinhampton. This event, established in 2009, has been accurately measured and although it contains one hill and a few undulations it is still a reasonably quick course”.
That “one hill” certainly slowed down Richard Edwards, who was disappointed not to finish inside the hour mark, but nevertheless enjoyed running with several other club members. Harrie Seibenaller ran well within herself with a non-club friend, and was delighted with the cow-themed medal (but didn’t mention the advertised crème egg for each finisher?).
Lastly for the road racing, Keith Firkin finished 150/691 in the Goring 10k in 48.07.
PARKRUN
Well, the wait is over. After keeping the editor on his toes for several weeks ;-)) our Chair, Pam Wheeler celebrated her 150th Parkrun milestone, taking it relatively easy after some recent niggles over our home course this weekend.
First home for the club was Heath Forbes in a PB 20.43 – congratulations to him and best wishes for a speedy recovery to his dad Rob. Heath was quite some minutes ahead of some older runners, including Dorian Matts who reports he was “outraged” to be lapped – since the winner ran 81% age-graded I’m not sure he should feel so bad. Amanda Naylor was only 20 seconds outside her PB.
Ollie Campbell took a win at Tetbury where two family pairings also ran for the club (although not the regular McAdams who were experiencing some variable weather in Spain).
Congratulations too to Kate Kilby for her whopping 84% best age-graded time at Stonehouse.
Cirencester: 8 Heath Forbes (J) 20.43, 67 Dorian Matts 27.11, 79 Gordon Jones 27.52,96 Brendan McCarthy 28.43, 108 Amanda Naylor 29.19, 115 Kirsty Leggate 29.49, 138 Pam Wheeler 31.48, 209 finished.
Tetbury: 1 Ollie Campbell 17.59, 20 Paul Timms 23.20, 67 Ben Hilditch 28.23,68 Angela Hilditch 28.24, 85 Samantha Timms 30.01, 147 finished.
Stonehouse: 10 Kate Kilby 24.30, 53 finished.
Marlborough Common: 99 David Moss 33.17, 129 finished.