As a local, ‘gold standard” race organised by the Ivanhoe Runners in Ashby de la Zouch, the Ashby 20 road race has always been well supported by the Peel Road Runners. Lured by the promise of sweatshirts and cheese cobs at the finish line, several Peelers took on the challenge of the undulating two lap course. Despite a cold damp start, the weather improved as the morning went on and Tim Mudd was first back for the Peelers in a time of 3:14:12, closely followed by Carolyne Browne in a time of 3:19:17. Sarah Boffey ran a well paced race to finish in 3:44:27 with Emma Whorwood not far behind in 3:52:03, a particularly good result for Emma as a period of injury and illness had negatively impacted her training. Running her first race at this distance, Claire Guffick was close on Emma’s heels crossing the finish line in 3:56:49 with husband Lee (also first time at distance) finishing in 4:28:30.
Continuing with her quest to run 100 marathons, Steph Attenborough ticked off her 54th marathon at Staines-on-Thames with Saturn Running’s ‘Chasing the Numbers’ 7 lap marathon on Friday in a time of 6:34:48. On Sunday, she ran the Phoenix running half marathon event at Walton on Thames, crossing the line in 3:10:00.
Parkrun events proved as popular as ever over the weekend with Kingsbury drawing the greatest number of Peelers. First home for the club was Ben Dorkins in 22:39, followed by Phil Neale (23:03); Tim Clark (23:52); Darren O’Leary (24:13); Mike Shelton (24:34); Jackie Tierney (30:04); Roger Eastaff (34:55); Wendy Bowyer (37:55); Ann Hill (37:56); Alison Dolphin (1:04:16) and Sarah French (1:04:17). Parkrun tourists included: Garth Cox (23:47) at Walsall Arboretum; Stuart Hatton (25:50); Tony Bryan (28:12); Marcus Fairburn (28:55) and Dave Fern (30:05) at Conkers; Allen King (23:29); Chris Bennett (24:54) and Darren Truman (25:41) at Clifton, Nottingham and Mark Boffey (23:14) at Chasewater.
