Bagworth Heath – Race 1

Gareth leads the way!!
The road shoes were temporarily put away last weekend and the cross country shoes and spikes given a quick clean as the annual mud fest of the Derby Runner Cross Country League got underway at Bagworth Heath. 35 runners from the Club lined up with over 500 others to tackle the notoriously heavy course.  Gareth Watkins showed what a valuable recruit he’s been as he ran a brilliant race to finish 5^th in the men’s race in a time of 33:11. The Club showed its current strength in depth as Ross Clarke, Mark Harriott, Stuart Halsey and John Morgan made up for the absence of other regular team scorers, either recovering from or preparing for autumn marathons, by giving everything in finishing in 54^th, 60^th 62^nd & 71^st places. For Clarke, who has become slightly frustrated not to duck under the classic 10k and half marathon road race bench marks in his debut season, his performance in his first cross country race indicated that this may become his favoured discipline. Someone well in the running for the Club’s most improved runner award is Christian Glover and here he ran well for 74^th place in 38:12.  There then followed really tight inter-Club racing as Andy Windle, Tom Eyre and Simon Reynolds finished in 114^th, 115^th and 116^th places and two seconds off one another. Not far behind was the ever consistent Andy Orme as he finished here in 120^th place in 40:42. Steve Leafe, Adrian Middleton, who relishes the mud and heavy conditions and Jon Mayman performed well to collect the 135^th, 160^th and 167^th finishing tokens with Dave Eyre, proving he is almost over his summer Ironman exertions in Tenerife, finishing in 43:16 for 183^rd. Romain Chambard finished in 192^nd, confirming again what a solid all terrain performer he is, with Phil Daws, Gary Price and Kevin Clarke in close order in 220^th, 234^th and 238^th places.   Paul Glover, Paul Hudson and Tony Richards gave their usual effective, wholehearted effort in securing 243^rd, 254^th and 273^rd places before the redoubtable Ray Udall emphasised he will take some stopping in the series  MV70 competition by finishing in 277^th place. Mark Nixon, another who prefers the more yielding ground conditions of the country and Robin Thorne in 315^th and 323^rd places respectively completed the Club’s scorers in the men’s race.
Jenny Laing, one of three of the Club’s runners tackling the upcoming Snowdon Marathon, confirmed her status as one of the best local senior women runners around by leading the club’s women home in 7^th place overall in 39:41. Ellie-May Evans vied with Ross Clarke as standout Club performer of the day as she stormed round in 43:06 and 18^th place in a superb debut run. Nikki Reeves, Tracey Glover and Lisa Wright have also been really solid performers this season and they emphasised this as they finished in 30^th, 45^th and 51^st places respectively in times of 45:37, 46:58 and 47:24. Becky Atkins was not far behind in 54^th before Hannah Wintrip, another showing remarkable powers of recovery after the inaugural Birmingham Marathon, Emily Atkins, Jenny Tattersall and Karen Wilks gave everything in completing the Club’s finishers in the women’s race in 118^th, 133^rd, 147^th and 187^th places respectively.