Peel Road Runners club members enjoy running in its many forms whether that’s road or trail, parkrun or ultra distance. Club Chairman, Lee Rickards, travelled to France this week to take part in both the Alpe d’Huez Duathlon and Triathon. The Alpe d’Huez road section is renowned for the steepness of its gradients and the 21 hairpin bends to reach the summit at the ski station and is regularly included in the Tour de France. Rickards took part in the Duathlon earlier in the week, which included a 6 km run followed by a 15 km bike ride up the Alpe d’Huez climb and then a 5 km run to finish. He completed this in 2 hours 37 minutes. He then took part in the Triathlon later in the week, which included a 1200 m open water swim, followed by a 29 km cycle again with the Alpe d’Huez climb and then a 6.5 km run. He finished this in 3 hours 16 minutes. Speaking about the event afterwards he said, “I’d been waiting over 2 years to do them because of covid. They are ‘bucket list’ events with amazing scenery and brilliant support on the climb, which makes you feel like you’re a Tour de France cyclist – despite only going half as fast!”
The Peelers were pleased to be able to support Tamworth Council at the 5k Fun Run in the Castle Grounds on Saturday morning. Many Peelers gave up their own parkrun to marshal the course and encourage runners on the free event promoted by the Council as part of the Commonwealth Games festivities. The Fun Run was a great event for runners of all abilities, but especially for Peeler Donna Reid who took part in the event and flew the flag for the club by winning the women’s race!
With a brilliantly organised trail race on our doorstep, how could the Peel Road Runners not have taken part in the Abbott Trail 10k race in Hopwas Woods this weekend? The race, which was organised by Simon’s Heroes, took runners on a two lap 10k course around the trails and paths in the woods, including the ascent of “cardiac hill” twice (if you know, you know!). The race was brilliantly organised with cheery marshals, folk singers and music en route to encourage runners, as well as having the fabulous location of Hopwas Woods to raise runners’ spirits.
First across the finish line for the Peelers was Martin Hollamby in an impressive time of 41:46 and 5th place overall. He was followed by Phil Neale in 50:46 (22nd place overall) and Mark Boffey (51:26); Ian Orton (54:46); Donna Reid (55:49); Chris Bennett (59:57); Darren Truman (59:59); Caroline Browne (1:00:57); Gemma Pritchard (1:03:09); Sarah Boffey (1:08:13); Sandra Ingram (1:09:02); Clara Walton (1:13:08) and Val Lawson (1:15:13).
With so many Peelers involved with the Tamworth Fun Run, only a few from the club ran at parkrun on Saturday. At Kingsbury James Stretton finished in 20:56 followed by Mike Shelton (21:46); Richard Satchwell (26:47); Darren Truman (26:48) and Jackie Tierney (35:57). Tim Mudd was the sole parkrun tourist this week, running at Long Eaton (26:24).
