After such a long period of cancelled and postponed races, this weekend finally had a feeling of normality about it with Peel Road Runners racing at different events all over the country.
Covering the full marathon distance and crossing the finish line in first place, Martin Hollamby ran the Battle of the Borders trail race on the Long Mynd from Church Stretton on Sunday. The epic trail race consisted of 4000 ft of climb and Hollamby finished in just under 4 hours, a mere 48 minutes ahead of the second placed marathon runner! On Saturday’s Battle of the Borders half marathon, Zoe Schnepp and Michael Shelton ran their trail course with around 2000 ft of climb in 2:20:00 and finished in joint 5th place overall.
Further north, Sophie Galloway ran a personal best time at the 40th Great North Run finishing in a time of 2:02:44 on the new undulating course (finishing in Newcastle rather than South Shields). The Great North Run was the largest event to take place in the UK since the lifting of pandemic restrictions with 57000 people registered to run this year’s race!
Closer to home, Mark Boffey ran the undulating Kenilworth half marathon finishing in a time of 1:51:38 and 259th out of 582 finishers. George Hope also ran and crossed the finish line in a time of 1:56:19 in 312nd place.
Garth Cox was the sole Peeler to take on the Nuneaton 10k course, finishing in a time of 50:16 and 93rd out of 174 runners.
At the Tamworth 5 Mile race (the final race the in the Burton and District Summer League for 2021), the Peelers were well represented on the undulating course promoted by Tamworth Athletics Club. There was a strong field with a lot of competition between athletes from local clubs and first Peeler back at the stadium was Wayne King in a time of 31:42 and 4th in the M40 age category. Second Peeler home was Michael Shelton (the day after running his trail half marathon!) in a time of 35:09. He was followed by Lorna Dsylva in 39:22, Roger Lloyd in 40:01, Chris Bennett in 40:04, Darren Truman in 41:23, Stuart Hatton in 41:53, Carl Hole-Maloney in 42:47, Dave Fern in 43:14, Emma Livingstone in 46:51, Sandra Ingram in 47:53, Claire Guffick in 49:03, Alison Upton in 52:54 and Lee Guffick in 1:00:51.
Quite a few Peelers take on the additionial challenges posed by triathlons and Martyn Candy took part in one of the most difficult in the country this weekend by completing the Hellvellyn triathlon in Cumbria. The event requires competitors to complete a swim in Ullswater, a cycle ride to the top of Kirkstone Pass (taking in the infamous “Struggle”) at 1489 ft and finishing with a run up and down Hellvellyn (3118 ft). Candy completed the course in 7:08:26, finishing 19th in the MV60+ age category.
Despite all the race action this weekend, the Peel parkrunners were busy ticking off their miles on Saturday. Running at the Club home course at Kingsbury parkrun, Mark Boffey was first to finish in a time of 24:42. He was followed by Darren O’Leary in 24:50, Carolyne Browne in 25:45, Darren Truman in 25:56, Garth Cox in 26:00, Stella Martin in 26:29, Tim Mudd in 29:00, Clara Walton in 31:21, Chris Taylor in 31:32, Roger Eastaff in 24:38, Wendy Bowyer in 39:33, Lawrence Williamson in 42:24 and Wayne King in 53:28. The biggest Kingsbury fanfare, however, goes to Peeler Lisa Fletcher who volunteered as a marshal for the 50th time and without volunteers there would be no parkruns! Ian Cooper ran at Rosliston parkrun finishing in a time of 26:11, whilst Tanya Murphy completed this course in a personal best time of 31:28!
