After a quieter few weeks for racing, this weekend saw Peelers travelling far and wide to take on road and trail challenges. In his first race since the New York marathon in November, George Hope ran the Warwick half marathon and finished the 13.1 mile undulating course in 1:49:53 surprising himself with his speedy result at his comeback race!
The perennial Peel favourite of the Stourbridge Stagger tempted Claire and Lee Guffick back for a second time. Claire finished the hilly and muddy trail 10 mile route in a time of 2:01:22 ( 5 minute course PB) and Lee in 2:23:08 (a huge 24 minute course PB!). Val Lawson also ran an undulating 10 mile trail race, the Winter Bash which started in Ticknall, Derbyshire and followed trails around the National Forest. She finished in 1:55:31, knocking 3 minutes off last year’s result.
Ultra Runner Steph Attenborough completed a challenge, a quarter of which would be enough for most runners! She ran 4 marathons in 4 days at the Enigma Running Quadzilla races. Each marathon consisted of 7.5 laps of Caldecotte Lake at Milton Keynes, which had to be completed within 7 hours. Steph ran consistently each day with a best marathon time of 6:12:59.
At the weekend’s parkruns, Ben Dorkins crossed the line first for the club in a time of 22:11, closely followed by Mike Shelton in 22:14. Other Peelers included Chris Bennett (27:29); Allen King (27:29); Stella Taylor (28:24); Joy Sykes (32:17); Sarah French (53:49); Alison Dolphin (54:04); Ann Hill (54:53) and Wendy Bowyer (54:56). Parkrun volunteers included: Stephen Andrews, Alison Dolphin, Wendy Bowyer, Roger Eastaff, Sarah French, Claire Guffick, Ann Hill and Mike Shelton.
Parkrun tourists included: Stuart Hatton (27:40) and Marcus Fairburn (29:08) at Conkers; Jackie Tierney (30:05) at Jersey Farm, St Albans; Garth Cox (23:50) at Babb’s Mill; Mick Stevenson (33:07) at Warwick Racecourse; Mark Boffey (21:46 – a parkrun pb of 11 seconds!) and Michael Hughes (32:15) at Yarborough, Lincoln.
