Several Peelers took on the iconic challenge of the Baxters Loch Ness marathon on Sunday. The race followed a linear route with competitors taken by bus to the start at Knockie Lodge before running back along the loch side to the finish in Inverness. Tim Mudd was first home in a time of 4:39:03 followed by Claire Guffick, who ran a personal best time of 5:12:04 (taking over 6 minutes off her previous best time) and Lee Guffick (6:20:38).
Over the weekend, Steph Attenborough completed her first ever 100 mile race at the Hootiful 100 at Samphire Hoe, Dover. The multi-lap course was made up of a mix of very high quality gently rolling trail, bike paths and a flat sea wall all within the shadow of the White Cliffs of Dover. She completed this immense challenge in 33:35:00.
Closer to home, Ben Dorkins took part in the Dovedale Dash on Sunday. This very popular trail race attracts up to 1400 runners who run an often muddy and technical 4.5 mile cross country course taking in a crossing of the River Dove (either using, or not using, the stepping stones!). Dorkins ran strongly to finish in 42:51.
Whilst not a running event, the fitness earned from running helped Peelers Craig Smith and Natalie Walker to an amazing achievement of conquering Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania on Friday. At a height of 19,341 feet (5859 metres) many hikers who start this walk fail to reach the summit due to the effects of altitude, which can be very debilitating. Wearing their Peeler bobble hats with pride and raising money for the Wooden Spoon charity they said that it was “Without doubt the most challenging thing we’ve ever done … left camp at 00:01 Friday (Kili time) and summited at 07:04am. It took every ounce of strength and determination on summit day but was well worth it”.
Following on from last week’s result of finishing first lady at the inaugural Sence Valley parkrun, Emma Pick was first home for the Peel Road Runners at Kingsbury parkrun on Saturday. She finished in a time of 20:39 and came in as second lady. Tim Clark was the next Peeler over the line in a time of 23:33, followed by Simon Gordon (23:50); Sophie Galloway (26:52); Jackie Tierney (27:50); Dave Fern (30:33); Roger Eastaff (30:45); Laura Bowyer (31:44); Joy Sykes (34:09); Martyn Candy (36:02); Ben Dorkins (36:11) and Ann Hill (61:20).
Parkrun tourists included: Mark Boffey (22:57) and Sarah Boffey (31:58) at Coventry; Garth Cox (23:55) at East Park, Wolverhampton; Roger Lloyd (24:41) at Beacon Park, Lichfield; Tim Mudd (28:38) at Torvean, Inverness; Ian Orton (23:01) and Michael Hughes (33:08) at University of Northampton and Allen King (22:52) and Chris Bennett (24:50) at Sence Valley, Ibstock.
