After a series of six races, Sunday saw the final race in the Derby/Staffs Cross Country League with Peel Road Runners racing on a scenic and relatively dry two lap course at Foremark reservoir. A good turnout ensured some great racing from team members with second claim runner Rob Dyjak first to finish for the club in 4th place overall in the men’s race. Finishing his first full season with Peel, U20 runner James Stretton showed great form and maturity to cross the line in 11th place overall with Ben Dorkins (38th); Mark Boffey (81st); Simon Gordon (84th); Billy King (87th); Michael Hughes (90th) and Lee Guffick (98th) making up the men’s team. First home for the ladies’ team, Emma Pick finished in 4th place overall closely followed by Lisa Stretton in 8th place. Catherine Tieley was next for the ladies in 17th place, followed by Lorna D’Silva (21st); Sarah Boffey (43rd); Jackie Tierney (45th); Val Lawson (49th) and Sandra Ingram (54th).
This race brought the cross country season to a close with some great racing over the winter and the best ever turnout of club members participating. Eight Peelers ran every race and, in the individual results, Emma Pick finished 3rd senior lady over the series; Lisa Stretton finished 1st V45 over the series and Rob Dyjak finished 1st V40 and 2nd male over the series. Peel ladies’ team came 2nd overall with the men 4th, making for 3rd placed team on the combined score.
Away from the cross country field, Steph Attenborough ignored everything the weather threw at her this last week and completed her 7 marathons in 7 days ‘Week at the Knees’ challenge! With finishing times ranging from 5:42:35 through to 6:52:05, she showed a huge amount of resilience and self belief to complete the challenge under such difficult weather conditions. She was joined by Peeler Michael Hughes on Wednesday, who completed his marathon in 4:50:41.
Chris Bennett was the sole Peeler to take on the Stafford half marathon this year, crossing the finish line in 1:56:57.
With many local parkruns cancelled due to icy conditions, parkrun Peelers had to travel to get their 5k fix this week. Sarah Boffey (27:58); Mark Boffey (27:59) and Jackie Tierney (28:51) ran at Brueton; Stuart Hatton (25:18) and Marcus Fairburn (28:50) ran at Conkers; Chris Bennett (22:54); Darren Truman (25:18) and Ian Orton (26:17) ran at Babb’s Mill and Tim Mudd (25:37) ran at Irchester, Wellingborough.
