Peel Road Runners were pushing themselves to the limits (and beyond) last weekend with some fantastic individual performances.
In Oxfordshire, Martin Hollamby executed a meticulously prepared training plan for the Abingdon Marathon and took an incredible 19mins off his previous 26.2 mile personal best time to post his first sub 3hr Marathon of 2:58:04hrs, finishing in 72nd place overall and pushing Martin’s body and mental strength well beyond its limits.
In the same event Michael Shelton and his sidekick ‘Trevor the Bear’ completed their third marathon in as many weeks running and raising money for the charity MIND. Another superb run from Michael saw the pair of them cross the finish line with a time of 4:20:00hrs. Two incredible results for very different reasons.
In Sutton Coldfield on Sunday was the Cinder Path 10k Cross Country run (the sister race of the 7pools run which is held earlier in the year) which takes in a route around the seven pools located in Sutton Park. It was Shaun Coyle continuing his recent good running form who was the first Peel Road Runner back across the finish line with a superb 10k time of 48:22mins and in 47th place overall. Garth Cox also ran the Cinder Path race and followed Shaun home in 98th place with a time of 53:02mins. Some excellent cross country prospects for the Peel Road Runners XC Team in the 2017/18 Cross Country League.
Down on the south coast and in the face of Storm Brian, Richard James ran the Great South Run held in Portsmouth. The weather conditions didn’t seem to phase Richard as he ran a new 10mile personal best time of 01:27:58hrs. This followed Richard’s outing two weeks before at the Oxford Half Marathon which he finished with a time of 1:59:27hrs.
The local Parkrun events were once again well attended by the Peel Road Runners with Robert Hirst the sole representative running at the Conkers Parkrun and managing a time of 24:44mins for the 5k route.
Over at Kingsbury Water Parkrun it was new member Emma Pick who crossed the finish as not only the first Peel Road Runner but also the first female in a time of 20:35mins. Hot on Emma’s heels was Darren O’Leary who smashed his previous best by 15secs to record a new PB of 20:41mins by chasing Emma down to the finish line. Shaun Coyle wasn’t too far behind finishing with 22:14mins ahead of Garth Cox with a time of 23:33mins.
Allan Williams was next to finish with 25:21mins ahead of Stuart Hatton 25:25mins, his first pain free run for a while, Tim Mudd 25:43mins and George Hope 25:53mins.
Sophie Galloway & Vicky Gilks continue to improve their 5k times with both posting new PB’s. Sophie’s time of 25:59mins took 1:30min off her previous personal best time whilst Vicky took 28secs off her previous best 5k time.
Peel Road Runners meet every Tuesday and Thursday at 7pm at the Snowdome in Tamworth.
New members are always welcome.
