Peel Road Runners played host to the annual Gate Gallop Charity Event last weekend helping to raise funds for St Giles Hospice. The event, which is also part of the BDSL Summer league, has the main 10k Trail race plus mini races and lots of other activities and this year was blessed with some glorious weather which was not given the thumbs up by all the runners.
Many of the club members were on volunteering duties on the day ranging from on course marshalling to selling tea & cakes but there were still a few that managed to get a run out in the main event and it was Ashley Baldwin who was the first Peel Road Runner back to Anker Valley playing fields as he crossed the finish line in 4th place overall and 1st in his age category with his excellent time of 37:36mins. Simon O’Reilly & Michael Shelton were the next two male finishers with their times of 44:38mins (a new PB for Simon) & 45:17mins respectively. Other male finishers included Richard Finnigan (53:29mins), Simon Gordon (53:47mins), Chris Taylor (1:00:48hrs), Pete Seedhouse – who managed to run it this year as an entrant as opposed to organiser (1:10:21hrs) & Darren Keenan (1:13:01hrs).
For the Peel Road Runner female runners, it was Emma Pick who just about scrambled around the course in a time of 44:18mins to finish as the first club female finisher and the 2nd placed female runner on the day. Behind Emma was Lisa Jones-Bignell with her time of 48:25mins and 3rd best female in her age category. Other female finishers on the day were Sophie Galloway (58:44mins), Caroline Evans (1:11:53hrs), Moira Twiggs (1:15:11hrs), Chris Keenan (1:15:17hrs), Alison Dolphin (1:20:28hrs) and Christine Norris (1:25:20hrs).
With most of the club focus on setting up for the Gate Gallop the following day, it was a quieter than usual Saturday morning Parkrun schedule for the club runners, however, some still managed to get in their weekly free 5k timed run. Andrew Pickard was running at the Concord Parkrun in Sheffield and he finished with a time of 21:16mins.
Other runners were at Kingsbury Water Park for their 5k, including Robert Hirst with his time of 22:51mins – a new PB on his 99th Parkrun outing. Also Running Kingsbury were Stuart Hatton (25:02mins), Tim Mudd (25:07mins), Dave Fern (27:10mins), Ian Grigg (31:22mins) and Lisa Fletcher who was once again volunteering as the tail runner / walker.
Peel Road Runners meet every Tuesday and Thursday at 7pm at the Snowdome in Tamworth.
New members are always welcome.
