After so many events were cancelled last weekend due to flooding, this weekend has been the opposite with many different events to tempt the Peel Road Runners to lace up their running shoes and get running.
Having worked hard to regain fitness after a long period of injury, Club Chairman Lee Rickards had a fantastic run at Saturday’s Eryri marathon in Llanberis. The race is renowned for its scenic but testing course taking in the Llanberis Pass, Beddgelert, Waunfawr and the infamous last mile down a track from Bwlch-y-Groes, but this didn’t stop Rickards running a course personal best time of 3:26:45, nearly 30 minutes faster than his last best at this race! Also running at Eryri (Snowdon marathon), Neal Dempsey ran well over the testing course to finish in 5:09:55.
The clocks going back on Saturday night could only signal one thing … the start of the cross country racing season! The first race for the Peelers running in the Derby/Staffs XC League was held at Anslow near Burton on Trent on a challenging and undulating course of 5.5 miles complete with water feature! First home for the club in 6th place overall was Wayne King followed by Luke Collins (23rd), Scott Chapman (41st), Ben Dorkins (63rd), Allen King (72nd), Chris Bennett (108th), Mark Boffey (110th), Darren O’Leary (111th), Billy King (115th), Simon Gordon (116th), Ian Orton (121st), Tim Mudd (129th), Michael Hughes (150th) and Lee Guffick (156th). In the ladies race, Lisa Stretton was first home for the club in 16th place, followed by Lorna D’Sylva (29th), Sophie Galloway (56th), Claire Guffick (61st), Caroline Evans (67th), Sarah Boffey (77th), Jackie Tierney (78th) and Helen Manton (82nd).
At the Coventry half marathon on Sunday, Mike Shelton ran a well paced race to finish in a season’s best time of 1:37:32. Building on her recent good form, Emma Pick raced well at the second running of the Brewers 10k road race in Burton finishing in second place in a time of 41:04.
Meanwhile at the Tamworth 10k, Anthony Trueman ran a strong race to cross the line in 48:51 as did Clara Walton finishing in 56:49. At last week’s Big Bear Events Headtorch 10k at Cannock Chase, Val Lawson ran the night time trail run in very wet conditions to finish in 1:09:30.
At the weekend’s parkruns, four Peelers took their “alphabet challenge” to new levels by flying out to Poland to collect their letter Z at the Zalew Zyrardowski parkrun to complete their challenge! (They even returned in time to run cross country for the club on Sunday!). Ian Orton was first to finish this international challenge in a time of 22:46, followed by Mark Boffey (23:08); Michael Hughes (25:54) and Sarah Boffey (27:04).
Closer to home at the Tamworth Castle parkrun, Ben Dorkins was first home for the club in 22:19 followed by Sophie Galloway (27:20); Jackie Tierney (29:04); Claire Guffick (29:28); Roger Eastaff (31:36); Joy Sykes (31:59); Wendy Roe (32:00); Emma Whorwood (33:01); Lee Guffick (36:58) and Steph Attenborough (53:12).
Other parkrun tourists included: Mike Shelton celebrating his 250th parkrun at Kingsbury in a time of 23:27, followed by Phil Neale (23:45); Tim Clark (23:58); Darren O’Leary (24:57); Lisa Stretton (25:09); Emma Pick (25:59) and Stella Taylor (30:25). Tim Mudd (25:52) ran at Snowden Field, Lincolnshire; Allen King (23:36), Chris Bennett (25:59) and Darren Truman (28:03) at Beacon Hill Country Park and Martin Hollamby (28:24) at Blaise Castle, Bristol.
