Holly Hayes Wood, Belvoir Challenge, Bath & Reading Halfs

Dominic leads the way in last leg of the series!
Despite a number of runners being otherwise engaged at a variety of city half marathons there was an excellent turn out of 17 from the Club for the final leg of the Derby Runner Cross Country Series. Holly Hayes Wood was the excellent setting and while the 4.8 mile course was very heavy going it was also relatively flat. Running his normally consistent race it was Dominic Sharman, proving again what a great acquisition he’s been, who led the way home with a superb 19^th place finish. Next home, after a tactically astute race, was Chris Pearson in 34^th followed closely by cross country debutant Andy Hawtin in 39^th place. Relieved to have finally shaken off a recent niggle, Shane Chapman was next back with his strongest run for sometime in 52^nd place. There then followed a really close battle between Paul Chapman & Chris Mason with Paul, not for the first time, pipping Chris on the line in 66^th & 67^th places respectively. Stuart Halsey, completing an excellent debut season in the series, was next to finish in 78^th place. Andy Orme, who completed the team finishers, also had a really strong inter club battle with Christian Glover as their 103^rd & 104^th place finishes indicate. Another who has had an excellently consistent series, Adrian Middleton, was next across the line in 120^th with the fast starting evergreen Steve Fowler close behind in 132^nd. Ashley Parkes, Tony Phillips & Dave Renshaw all made light of the rock & tree route strewn course to finish strongly in 154^th, 171^st & 187^th places respectively. Team wise the men finished 2nd in their league & 3rd overall across the series. Also recorded, in this race, the 4th best score across both divisions.

In a slightly reduced women’s team Christina Cooper & Tracey Glover continued to show great improvement over the country as their terrific 21^st & 35^th place finishes in the women’s race indicate. Inge Moore battled really well after recent illness to complete the finishers for the Club in 101^st. Thanks to Malcolm for doing the essential team manager duties.
On Saturday, 5 of the Club’s runners tackled the 15 mile leg with one hardy person, Heidi Elliott tackling the full 26 miles of the Belvoir Challenge. Open to runners and walkers alike with stops for cakes & check ins, times and possibly distances are not really that meaningful but all managed to finish in the top 60% of finishers with Gary Price leading the way in 93^rd place in 2.36.02. Nikki Reeves was next in 195^th in 3.01.43 followed by Caroline Ife & Mark Skidmore in 370^th & 371^st & 4.12.59 & 4.13.06 respectively. Cath Johnson completed the Club finishers in 381^st in 4.27.17 in the 15 mile event. Heidi finished the monster 26 mile route in a superb 43rd place in a time of 6.38.30
On much firmer terrain Steve & Jack Leafe were amongst thousands of others who took part in the very popular Reading Half Marathon. On this occasion family honours went to Steve who performed really well for his chip time of 1.35.00 with Jack not far behind in 1.37.19. Simon Reynolds, in conditions not really conducive to fast times, ran well in the Bath Half Marathon to record 1.31.09 just missing the 1.30.00 benchmark.