Foremark, Birmingham, Valencia, Palma & Amsterdam.

Sharman shines brightly
Sunday brought further confirmation that shorts & running vests should be packed away for another year with the first fixture in the 2013/14 Derby Runner Cross Country League at Foremarke Reservoir. The South Derbyshire contingent was somewhat reduced through half marathon commitments at home & abroad but this should not detract from the 9 runners who made the start line with almost 450 others, not least the terrific debut run by Dominic Sharman who finished a superb 20^th overall in a very competitive race.   Also running well over the 5.5 mile course in a welcome return to Club colours was Simon Hackett in 48^th on this occasion getting the better of Colin Mee in 68^th. If nothing else Colin’s performance shows he is not suffering any lasting hangover from a difficult run in the recent Nottingham Marathon. Roger Matthews battled well for 132^nd place with the improving Dan Towns in 152^nd and, the Chester Marathon recovering, Ray Udall in 170^th. Adrian Middleton in 203^rd and the evergreen Steve Fowler in 224^th completed the men’s finishers for the Club. The only Club representative in the women’s race was Inge Moore who ran brilliantly on her XC series debut for 117^th place.
11 of the Club’s members took part in Sunday’s BUPA Great Birmingham Half Marathon & there were 4 top 1000 place finishes to celebrate. Leading the way again were the Chapman brothers,  Shane & Paul, who both recorded PBs of 89.42 & 91.24 respectively.  They were spotted in the afternoon, by an anonymous source, refueling in the Greyhound Inn at Woodville. Struggling slightly, Andy Hawtin was next across the line in 93.40 just getting the better of Andy Orme in 94.07. Andy, following a different regime, refueled on sushi washed down with pumpkin latte. Christina Cooper ran well for 1.45.17 ahead of Gary Price in 1.49.04. Sam Skidmore was a whisker away from a sub 2 hour performance with 2.01.08 followed by Club debutants David Lunn & Chris Morton in 2.03.33 & 2.07.12 respectively. Nicola Thompson in 2.13.40 and Mark Skidmore’s 2.34.18 completed the finishers for the Club.
Much further afield there was a superb performance from Louise Insley in recording a PB of 1.25.43 in the Valencia Half Marathon. The performance will cement Louise’s already high national age group ranking across a range of distances. In the same country, Steve Leafe ran well to return 96.42 in the TUI Palma Half Marathon while Chris Mason completed the Europe wide involvement with a slightly disappointing 1.34.52 in the Mizuno Amsterdam Half Marathon. Think both Steve & myself would both recommend the latter events if you fancied a weekend abroad running because both incorporate  a shorter race (8k in Amsterdam & 10k in Palma) a half marathon & a full marathon, if you really want your weekend spoiling.