LRRL 2015 – Barrow 6

No stopping Chrissy!!
There was a terrific start to the 2015 Leicestershire Road Running League & the Club’s own Championship on Sunday as a magnificent 32 runners lined up with 667 others on the start line for the Barrow 6. In excellent running conditions, over a typically undulating Leicestershire course, it was the Club’s women who set an early marker in what is a very competitive league. Reigning women’s Club Champion, Christina Cooper, led the way home in 9^th place in a superb chip time of  39.07 with Jenny Laing-Brierley, despite being badly hampered by injury, scoring valuable team points in stopping the clock in 42.44 for 16^th place. There then followed a really tight battle between Kelly Knight & Tracey Glover with Kelly just edging it 44.29 & 39^th place to Tracey’s 44.37 in 41^st. Laura Storer & Lisa Wright both ran well to record 48.22 & 49.32 respectively before Linda Mason’s 59.31 gave her the edge over Linda Tempest’s 60.27 & Inge Moore’s 67.00 in the battle between the Club’s senior veteran women.
Not to be outdone the Club’s men also got off to a terrific start with Chris Pearson, Andy Hawtin & Shane Chapman only separated by 6 places & 9 seconds as they pushed each other to times of 35.23, 35.27 & 35.32 & overall finishing positions of 28^th, 31^st & 34^th respectively. Not far behind in 46^th place in 36.12 was James Cassidy, who is also benefiting considerably from the competitive rivalry at the top of the order. There was then something of a gap before the next block of Club finishers with Steve Leafe, enjoying a really good spell of form, leading the way in 39.51 & 136^th place from Stuart Halsey in 40.00 & 143^rd, the tactically astute Andy Orme in 40.04 & 146^th place & Dave Eyre in 41.00 & 164^th place. Chris Gunstone & Simon Reynolds gave everything in finishing in 41.05 & 41.34 respectively before there was again something of a gap before the next block of finishers from the Club. Road race debutant, Tom Eyre’s 44.23, led the way in this group, from the more experienced Ashley Parkes in 44.50, another race debutant, Mitchell Timms in 45.04 & the battling Ray Udall in 45.24.  Paul Glover was next home in 46.39 before Malcolm Moore, despite a bad fall early on, crossed the line ahead of Peter Barsby but with a slower chip time of 47.16 to Barsby’s 47.07.  Steve Tempest & Mark Coombes were also virtually inseparable in chip times of 49.03 & 49.13 respectively after Mark had got in some valuable training for an ultra distance run he’s doing later in the year by running to the venue. Dave Renshaw was next in 50.56 with Tim Argent, making a solid start to the season, in 51.34. If there were prizes for effort the final 2 finishers for the Club in the men’s race Richard Ward & Dave York would be well to the fore as they stopped the clock in 54.35 & 58.05 respectively.