Valencia, Palma & Brum!!!

Roasting in Spain….cooler in Brum
It was a weekend in which big city half marathons dominated the racing agenda for the Club’s runners with 7 in action at 2 locations in Spain & 8 others, closer to home, tackling the increasingly popular, Birmingham Half Marathon.
Louise Insley goes from strength to strength as she made her second visit to the beautiful city of Valencia to tackle the half marathon. In blazing sunshine, with temperatures reaching 29 degrees towards the the end of the race, she recorded a superb 1.24.23, which gave her 2^nd place in the WV40 category. Some distance away in Palma, Majorca but in similar temperatures Shane Chapman reversed a rare defeat by elder brother Paul in the recent Nottingham Half Marathon by storming round the Palma Half Marathon in 1.27.22. This was a terrific performance given there was no respite from the blazing sun in the less scenic first half of the race although the circuitous route through the old town, including a section past the iconic cathedral, offered some relief to runners in the second half of the race. Chappers snr also made light of the conditions to duck below the half marathon benchmark of 1.30 mins with 1.29.13. Chris Mason struggled badly in the heat to record 1.33.39 with the hard working Steve Leafe, giving the performance of the day, in recording 1.33.56. Jack Leafe, has had an excellent season over the shorter distances, but struggling here with a virus battled well to return a very respectable 1.36.26. Andy Orme, seeming to enjoy the warm conditions and his role as tour mentor to the Chapman’s, also ran well to record 1.37.24 before taking the boys to refuel at the Hard Rock Cafe.
There were also some terrific performances in slightly different conditions in the Birmingham Half Marathon with Christian Glover, following up his performance at Nottingham a couple of weeks ago, leading the way home for the Club in 1.35.53. Also performing well was the consistent Tracey Glover, who stopped the clock at 1.40.05 with something of a gap to Wayne Kelleher who ran solidly to record 1.50.55. Making a rare but very welcome race appearance, Peter Barsby should be pleased with his 1.54.24 as should Lisa Wright in recording 1.57.14. There were then also battling performances from Chris Morton, Maria Allen & Christine Matthews in recording times of 2.05.59, 2.09.05 & 2.49.14 respectively.