Shepshed, Dovedale & the Marlow Half Marathon

Members were in action at a number of venues on Sunday with 14 at the annual challenge that is the Dovedale Dash & 23, in a field of almost 500 finishers, for the last race of the 2015 Club Championship Series, the Shepshed 7.Leading the Club home (writes Steve Leafe), and securing victory in Division 2 of the Club Championship was Stuart Halsey, who has been improving all season and secured an excellent 43^rd place overall in a chip time of 46.01. Another runner who has shown better form as the season has progressed is Chris Gunstone whose 49^th position in 46.40 was good enough to secure him the Vet 55 male prize. Next back in a time of 47.23 in 56^th position was Club stalwart Andy Orme. A bit further back there was a close battle between Steve Leafe who came in 73^rd position in a time of 48.14, just ahead of the fast finishing Glenn Smith, 4 seconds behind in 75^th.
Making a welcome return to Club racing, Matt Clemson gained a top 100 finish in 49.39, whilst Kelly Knight showed no ill effects after running a big PB in the Worksop half marathon the previous week to secure 97^th place in 49.53. The performance gave Kelly an excellent 8^th place in the female standings. Paul Glover has had a very busy season but had another good run to finish 129^th in a time of 51.32, whilst the evergreen Ray Udall seems to improve with age, and ran over a minute faster than last year to finish in a time of 52.36, which was good enough for 149^thplace. Laura Harper came in next with another excellent run of 53.30 for 166^th place, whilst perhaps feeling the effects of a lot of races in the last few weeks, including an excellent PB in the recent Birmingham Half Marathon. The ever consistent Tracey Glover finished in the top 200, in 199^thin a time of 55.23.
Tim Argent has been running consistently and, like Tracey and Paul Glover and Richard Ward, has competed in every one of the 14 Club Championship races this season, had another good race in 217^th position in a time of 56.41.  Richard Ward and Dave Lunn have been battling for the Division 5 title all season with Richard giving his all to finish in 234^th position in a time of 57.23, not far ahead of Jenny Winter, who in just her second race for SDRR, ran excellently for 252^nd position in a time of 58.34. Stuart Reeves, another busy racer in recent months, was next home in 261^st in a time of 59.09, just ahead of Dave Lunn, who came in 267^thin a time of 59.27.
Steve Tempest was next home for the club, running well again in 285^th in a time of 60.25, followed by Seran Bradley, in 310^th in 61.44, whilst Maria Allen and Alison Shearer had a close race, with Maria just winning out in 366^th in 64.36 to Alison’s 368^th in 64.40. Kat Smith came in next in 442^nd place in 73.01, followed by Linda Tempest in 464^th in a time of 78.13, whilst Pauline Cooper ran the longest distance of her career to date to come in 478^th in 83.43.
Leading the way in the dash down & across the River Dove was Chris Pearson in 31.54 for 26^th place with training partner Shane Chapman, also showing the benefit of his recent participation in the open race at the World Mountain Running Championships, finishing in 32.14 & 33^rd place. Tom Bradley made an excellent debut appearance for the Club finishing in 33.45 & 61^st place with the quickly improving, Andy Windle a minute behind in 34.45 & 87^th place. The versatile Simon Reynolds ran well for 36.01 before Tom Eyre stopped the clock in 37.44. Adrian Middleton, who responds well to the mud & wet feet, gave his usual maximum effort in finishing in 38.26 with James Cobb, also revelling in the conditions, next in 39.17. Relative newcomer, Caley Parnell, ran superbly to be first woman back for the Club in 41.22 with Chris Hanman stopping the clock in 44.34. Gary Price, who has had a difficult season, loves this event and managed to finish well in 47.33 with Wayne Kelleher a couple of minutes back in 49.43. Heidi Elliott & Lisa Wright crossed the line together with times of 66.32 & 66.33 respectively.
Slightly further afield Barry Saunders tackled the challenging Marlow Half Marathon recording a very respectable 1.57.30 for his efforts.