Peel Road Runners sent a strong team to North Derbyshire to take on the Clowne Road Runners half marathon on Sunday. The race is a classic autumn half marathon, extremely well organised by a running club over an undulating and quite challenging course. Racing home to get his mint coloured sweatshirt first for the club was Phil Neale, who finished in a time of 1:40:53 and 9th out of 58 M55 runners. Luke Collins was close on his heels in 1:41:16, with Allen King the next Peeler to cross the finish line in 1:46:21. Craig Smith ran well to finish in 1:50:29, with Darren Truman also clocking in at 1:50:29. In form Mark Boffey continued his good run of form to finish in 1:51:17, with Richard Satchwell finishing in 1:53:42. Lorna D’Silva was first lady home for the Club in a time of 1:53:44 and 9th out of 44 F35 runners. Natalie Walker was second lady Peeler home in 1:55:10, with Michael Hughes 1:56:35; Simon Gordon 1:56:40; Ian Orton 2:00:18; Stuart Hatton 2:03:55; Gemma Pritchard 2:04:04; Sophie Galloway 2:07:33; Jason Church 2:07:13; Chris Bennett 2:11:39; Sarah Boffey 2:12:32 and Emma Whorwood 2:21:28. Sarah Boffey’s race result was probably the ‘standout’ for the team, as she knocked over 13 minutes of her previous half marathon best from 2014, but it was a day of personal best times with Darren Truman, Allen King and Gemma Pritchard all knocking minutes off their previous best times.
As if running one marathon in a weekend wasn’t enough, Steph Attenborough ran two last weekend! On Saturday, Steph took part in the Saturn Running Save the Rhino charity run at Lee Valley White Water Centre at Waltham Abbey running 4.37 mile laps on the flat trail course. She completed 6 laps to cover the marathon distance in 5:36:59. Following on from this, on Sunday she ran the Zig Zag Running ‘Easier Said than Run’ trail marathon at Hinchingbrooke Country Park at Huntingdon. This was a trail run over a mixture of muddy paths and light trails around the lakes and woodland, which Steph completed in 6:34:41.
At the third round of the Dark & White Events Autumn trail race at Grindleford, Val Lawson took on the 9.1 mile course with 1168 ft of ascent, finishing in a time of 2:11:22 and 3rd out 7 FV60 runners. Following the recent heavy rain, ground conditions were very muddy and slippery but the sun was shining and the views were far-reaching making for a memorable run. She also finished 4th out of 8 FV60 in the Series results.
Meanwhile at the Canicross Midlands event at Locko Park, Spondon Neal Dempsey ran in the long and short course events, coming third in the two dog long course running with Banana and Paddington and Minstrel (short course). Helen Dempsey also ran in the long and short course events, running with Hugo, Pickle and Pine.
Despite so many Peelers racing this weekend, there was still a good turnout at the local parkruns. At Kingsbury, Mike Shelton was first home for the club in 22:58 with Jackie Tierney (28:30); Ann Hill (33:41); Joy Sykes (35:14); Claire Guffick (41:06) and Lee Guffick (41:12) also running. Parkrun tourists included Michael Hughes at Dudley (40:42); Garth Cox (23:15) at Walsall; Tim Mudd (26:26) at Rushcliffe, Nottingham; Emma Barley (32:03) at Chasewater; Mark Boffey (25:27) and Sarah Boffey (29:10) at Severn Valley Country Park, Bridgnorth and Mick Stevenson at Warwick Racecourse (31:32).
