Shepshed 7 & ‘No Frills’ Duathlon

Shane continues his upward progress & Carolyn gets value for money
On a windy, but dry morning, a superb turn out of 20 of the Club’s runners contested the penultimate race in this year’s Club Championship, the Shepshed 7. It was Shane Chapman, who has had an excellent first full season, who confirmed his status as one of the quickest in the Club with a superb 27^th place finish out of 500 starters in 44.51. Running well, Colin (the grey fox) Mee was next to finish in 45.50 and 39^th place edging out Andy Orme, who has recovered well from the recent Chester Marathon to record 46.38 & 47^th place. Paul Chapman, another who has had an excellent first full season, and Chris Mason were next to finish in 51^st & 59^th places & 46.50 & 47.22 respectively. Chris’s performance was good enough to secure the MV60 prize on the day. Steve Leafe ran strongly to record 49.28 and secure a well earned finish inside the top 100.
Rob Lower & Texas bound Ray Udall were next across the line in 51.02 & 51.25 followed by the improving Gary Price in 53.28. In terms of overall finishing positions the Club’s women then took over with Tracey Glover, probably putting in the performance of the day, recording 54.07 and 33^rd position in the women’s race out of 195 finishers. Laura Storer, Sam Skidmore & Marie York all ran well to record 59.26, 61.27 & 62.24 respectively. Breaking up this quartet was Trevor Rickman’s well paced 59.11. Tim Argent was next across the line in 62.41, followed by Club Chairman & senior coach, Dave York in 65.02 & Carolyn Ife in 68.03. Mark Skidmore showed good improvement to record 72.35 before the Club’s final two finishers Cath Johnson (81.51) & super dooper vet Roger Barraclough crossed the line to a great reception from their waiting team mates.
The previous Sunday Carolyn Ife proved she is versatile as well as a bargain hunter when she tackled a duathlon for the first time  ‘the 1485 No Frills Duathlon’ at Bosworth Water Park – 5k run 21k bike 5k run. See Mark Nixon for an explanation about the 1485 but its linked to the Civil War…..
Carolyn did 29.05 for the first run – 58.29 for the bike and 32.35 for the second run – total time 2hrs and 9 seconds in very muddy & windy conditions. A tremendous all round effort. Having done the event a couple of years ago I can recommend it to anyone who fancies tackling a duathlon.