Shelton Striders 10k & Rugby 10 miler

A Great Day for Personal Bests!!
Didn’t think it could get any better than last week’s Robin Hood Marathon & Half Marathon but of the 22 athletes from the Club in action at two venues on Sunday no less than 14 of them recorded Run Britain PB’s. The majority of runners  were at the Shelton Striders 10k were Andy Hawtin & Chris Pearson took advantage of the superb running conditions & a flat course to both record PB’s of 37.16 & 37.33 respectively and superb top 20 finishes out of the 367 who completed this event. Chris Crosby got the reward for his efforts across the season with another PB of 39.13 just edging out Colin Mee, who ran well for 37^th place, in 39.31. Another who has worked really hard & improved her times significantly across the season, Christina Cooper, shattered her PB with 39.31 which also gave her 3^rd place in a competitive women’s race. Following up his excellent performance at Nottingham, Christian Glover’s 40.50 for 52^nd place overall was another well deserved PB. The metronomic Andy Orme ran his usual consistent race with 41.38 for 59^th place while Steve Leafe’s 42.15 was a well deserved season’s best for the distance. Not to be outdone one of the Club’s more experienced runners, the evergreen Steve Fowler, got in on the PB act when he stopped the clock in 43.32 just ahead of another Club stalwart, Rob Lower in 43.47. Not a PB on this occasion but Chris Hughes will get there soon as he continues to improve as his 44.07 indicates. The next 3 finishers for the Club, Tracey Glover (45.46), Sam Skidmore (47.41) & relative newcomer, Paul Glover (48.18), all ran superbly to record PB’s with Malcolm Moore enjoying the conditions & course to record 48.40. Just glad to be racing again, Kelly Knight, had a titanic battle with Tim Argent just edging it by one place & 2 seconds in times of 50.19 & 50.21 respectively. Tim had the satisfaction of recording a well deserved PB. The last 3 finishers for the Club Laura Storer (51.15), Richard Ward (54.03) & Linda Ward (57.12) also all recorded PB’s to round off a very successful race for the Club.
Slightly further afield Louise Insley & Chris Mason were in action in the Rugby 10 miler, which also acted as the Midland Masters AC’s (MMAC) 10 mile Championship. Over a really challenging course, particularly in the second half of the race, Louise was again in superb form as she won the women’s race by some distance in a PB of 63.51. Her run also gave her the gold medal in the MMAC championship in the WV40 category & a top 10 place in the age group national rankings for the distance. Chris Mason, despite struggling in the second half of the race, also won his age category in the open race & was 1^st MV65 in the MMAC championship. His 65.06 was also good enough to put him top of his age group national rankings for the distance.