‘Run in the Forest’ 5, Derby 10k, Manchester Marathon & Reading Half.

Local heroes!
The first race in this year’s Burton & District Summer Road Racing League, The Run in the Forest 5, took place on Sunday and, despite having to concentrate on marshalling our own race and with a number of runners resting before next Sunday’s London Marathon, it was a really strong competitive showing from the Club.
On a great day for running and with record numbers taking part in the main race & the 1 mile junior fun run it was great to see the yellow vest to the fore as Alex Benfield won the main race by some distance in 27.26 & Kelly Knight, continuing her excellent form, recording 2^nd in the women’s race in a superb 33.33. Another in the form of his life at present is Chris Pearson and he finished an excellent 3^rd in 28.14. Andy Hawtin, John Morgan, Stuart Halsey & the ultra-consistent Andy Orme gave great team support as they finished in times of 30.26, 31.19, 32.09 & 32.36 & 10^th, 15^th, 23^rd & 28^th positions respectively. Their combined efforts were good enough for first place in the men’s team competition.  Simon Reynolds, running well despite feeling the effects of a great run in the recent Barcelona Marathon, finished in 32.48 with Tom Eyre’s 32.54 again getting the better of dad Dave, some distance behind in 33.42. Christian Glover ran well for 34.08 with Nigel Atkins, Steve Fowler & Romain Chambard giving everything as they stopped the clock in 35.16, 36.00 & 36.35 respectively. Richard Ward in 40.46 & Graham Blackshaw, making a really welcome appearance after an injury hampered period, in 42.08 completed the Club’s finishers in the men’s race.
Giving Kelly Knight great support in the women’s team race were Caley Parnell’s 37.03 for 7^th place, Laura Harper’s 38.21 for 10^th and the improving Karen Wilks 42.08 for 27^th.  A determined Jenny Winter stopped the clock in 42.39 for 31^st with Seran Bradley very close behind in 33^rd in 42.46. Kerry Ward & Mary Sharpe both ran well in the sunshine as they completed the Club’s finishers in the women’s race in 46.19 & 49.00 respectively.
A number of the Club’s runners were also in action on Sunday in the Derby 10k with Louise Insley recording an excellent chip time of 38.31 for 97^th place overall, 6^th place in the women’s race & 2^nd place in her age group. Also running well over the relatively flat course were Tom Bradley & Mark Murkin as they finished in 38.41 & 45.15 respectively. David Lunn, continued his year-long racing odyssey, as he finished here in a very respectable 54.13 with Lisa Wright’s 78.12 completing the Club’s finishers in this race.
This is a really busy time of the year for road racing and in last Sunday’s Asics Manchester Marathon Ray Udall ran superbly to finish in 3:49.10 for 5^th place in his age group and, more importantly, securing an age group qualifying time for next year’s London Marathon
A couple of weeks ago it was the Mizuno Reading Half Marathon with Jack Leafe running an excellent PB of 1:20.39 and Stewart Laing, with very little training, surprising himself with a really respectable chip time of 1:50.23.