Burton 10, Slateman, Outlaw, Lanzarote & Footprints

Jennie leads the way!!
It was an exceptionally busy weekend for Club members as they tackled a wide variety of endurance challenges at home and abroad.
The majority were very local though with 34 tackling the annual Burton 10 miler. The Club were also amongst the prizes as Jennie Laing’s 66:48 gave her 3^rd place in the women’s race and, together with Alun-Lloyd Thomas’s 58:38, Chris Pearson’s 59:18 and Rob Eaton’s 59:38 helped to retain the event’s team prize. The Club’s strength in depth was also emphasised as both the men’s and women’s team were 1^st in the Burton and District Summer League of which this race was the 3^rd leg. Valuable team support was provided by Andy Hawtin (62:29), Shane Chapman (64:05), Andy Windle (68:17), Richard Miller, making his racing debut for the Club in 68:36, Ross Clarke (69:08) and Kelly Knight (69:36) with all ducking beneath the distance benchmark of 70 minutes.
Andy Orme, Phil Daws & Nigel Atkins also made light of the 2 lap course as they stopped the clock in 70:21, 71:30 and 72:13 respectively. Romain Chambard in 73:04, Adrian Middleton in 73:56 and James Gough in 74:13 were also not far behind in crossing the finishing line. Tom Eyre, who like a lot of others in the Club had spent Saturday tracking the progress of his Dad, Dave Eyre in the Lanzarote Iron Man Triathlon, finished here in 75:47 with husband and wife duo Paul and Tracey Glover close as usual in 77:50 and 78:22 respectively. Tracey though was involved in one of the many tight inter-Club battles as the evergreen Rob Lower was a second behind in 78:23. Barry Saunders, who is facing surgery shortly on a long-standing Achilles problem, finished in 79:52 with Becky Atkins continuing her recent upturn in form in 80:43. Little separated Laura Harper and MV70 Ray Udall, in his first race after the London Marathon, as they finished in 83:21 and 83:36 respectively. Probably the Club’s most prolific runner, Dave Lunn finished here in 85:34 with Becky Moult, Holly Holland and Paul Hudson giving everything as they finished in 86:11, 86:48 and 86:55. Mark Murkin battled well for his 91:39 with the biggest cheer of the day being reserved for Emily Atkins as she smiled across the line in 96:02. Alison Shearer, Rebecca Lenaghan, Emma Sharp and Robin Thorne performed superbly as they completed the finishers for the Club in 96:48, 101:07, 109:53 and 109:54 respectively.
The aforementioned Dave Eyre was the centre of attention as he completed his first ironman in 14:17:37. Everything was going well, particularly in his strongest discipline on the bike, but he struggled with knee problems and painfully had to walk the last 10 miles of the marathon.  Still a really creditable time in what is the toughest of endurance challenges.
Six other Club members were in triathlon action on Sunday with the competitive Lisa Wright completing the Outlaw Half in an excellent combined time of 05:42. Nikki Reeves, Simon Reynolds and Mark Harriott also took part in this event as a relay and also performed creditably to finish in a combined time of 05:23. One of the Club’s most in form runners at present Christian Glover tackled what is genuinely billed as one of the coldest triathlons to tackle, the Slateman Triathlon in Wales, and should be pleased with his combined time of 03:25:15. Last but not least Steve Leafe completed his ‘Footprints for Footprints’ Challenge with 03:52 in Sunday’s Windermere Marathon. The Challenge on behalf of an orphanage in Kenya began last Sunday with a 10 mile road race, the week was spent walking the 84 miles of the Dales Way before Sunday’s finale at Windermere.