Peel Road Runners welcomed in the new year of running with some post celebration Parkruns with some determined members completing a double-header of 5k’s on New Years Day competing at both the Conkers event which started at 9am and then the Kingsbury event at 10.30am.
The Conkers Parkrun saw Ashley Baldwin finish in a magnificent 2nd place overall with a blistering time of 17:14mins, also a new PB to start off the New Year. Mike Shelton & Shaun Coyle kicked off their first of two 5k’s for the day with times of 21:24mins & 23:48mins respectively with Marie Llewellyn finishing just behind in 24:11mins.
At Kingsbury, it was Mike Shelton who was the first Peel Road Runners back across the finish line with a time of 20:25mins ahead of Simon Smith who ran a time of 21:03mins. Following Simon home were Stuart Hatton & Darren O’Leary who both shared a time of 24:59mins with Stuart just getting to the finish line ahead of Darren. 12 places behind Darren was Shaun Coyle in 25:37mins just ahead of George Hope who managed 25:46mins. Robert Hirst was next through the timing tunnel to record a 26:45min 5k. Darren & Christine Keenan were the next Peelers to finish with times of 32:02 & 33:35mins respectively ahead of Caroline Evans 34:44mins and Sandra Ingram 36:39mins.
January 6th was the first regular Saturday Parkrun for the year and many Peel Road Runners were out in the cold, wet & muddy conditions kicking off the year with renewed optimism.
Running his first Markeaton Parkrun event was Allan Williams, representing the Peelers on his own amongst a crowd of over 420 runners, Allan finished his 5k with a time of 27:55mins.
Over at Conkers Ashley Perks brushed the cobwebs off his trainers and led the Peel Road Runners home with a time of 24:55mins ahead of Liz Morgan who ran a 32:05mins.
As usual it was Kingsbury Water Parkrun that saw most of the Peel Road Runners descending upon. Due to the icy conditions, the route was reverted to two laps of the main lake and muddy nature trail track but that didn’t hamper some determined individual performances. Michael Shelton led the way home for the Peelers with a terrific 20:46min for his 5k. Simon Smith wasn’t too far behind with a time of 21:30mins ahead of Darren O’Leary 22:09mins and Shaun Coyle 22:30mins. Stuart Hatton notched his 92nd Kingsbury parkrun with his time of 24:08mins just 4 secs ahead of Garth Cox with 24:12mins. Next to cross the finish line for the Peelers was Dave Fern in 25:42mins, Darren Cotton in 26:49mins, Robert Hirst in 27:32mins, Owen Slater in 28:07mins & George Hope in 28:13mins.
Annie Wilson was the first Peel Road Runner woman to pass through the finishing tunnel with a time of 29:53mins just ahead of Jo Insley who ran a 30:14min time for her 5k.
Robert Donovan put his unfortunate new year marathon experience behind him and was out running again at Caldecotte Lakes in the Winter Enigma Marathon event also on the 6th January. Bob was back on track for his target of 100 marathons and ran out a time of 5:45:30hrs for his 26.2miles.
Peel Road Runners meet every Tuesday and Thursday at 7pm at the Snowdome in Tamworth.
New members are always welcome.
