Worksop Halloween Half Marathon

Stuart battles through
It was back to the roads for the Club’s contingent of 26 as they lined up with over 2500 others on Sunday for the Worksop Halloween Half Marathon. In perfect running conditions and an undulating route that went through the picturesque Clumber Park many of the Club’s participants were rewarded with personal best performances. One of the best performances was from Stuart Halsey, who put an injury plagued period, behind him to storm round in a chip time of 1:25:27 for an excellent 72^nd place overall. Close behind, and showing no ill effects from running the inaugural Birmingham Marathon, was Christian Glover who ran brilliantly for 77^th place in 1:25:47. Ross Clarke was slightly disappointed not to duck under 1:30:00 but he still had the satisfaction of recording a distance PB of 1:30:30 for 173^rd place as did the resurgent Tom Eyre with his 1:32:03 for 209^th place. Chris Mason, another pleased to be running again after a difficult couple of years, recorded a chip time of 1:33:42 for 246^th place with Nathan Fagan close behind in 253^rd in 1:34:04. Jerome Jones had a superb debut run for the Club in recording 1:35:02 before Nikki Reeves, Adrian Middleton and Ian Archer recorded well deserved PBs of 1:38:22, 1:38:38 and 1:41:54 respectively. Paul Glover and Lisa Wright have been two of the Club’s busiest athletes this year and they showed their resilience here in recording 1:43:38 and 1:45:19. MV70 Ray Udall’s 1:47:40 gave him 2^nd place in his age category before he proved that variety is the key to a long running career by indicating his intention to tackle 1500m on the track next year. With a chip time of 1:50:04 the determined Laura Harper was next while Phil Daws, unlucky to pick up an injury en route, still battled round for 1:50:08 with Kev Clarke pushing him all of the way as he finished in 1:50:22. Kevin had the satisfaction, post race, of locating the free sarnies thus retaining his long standing reputation and ability for identifying a freebie and the jealousy of his teammates who didn’t!!. Again, on chip time, the improving Holly Holland was not far behind with 1:50:45 before Kelvin Taylor and Paul Hudson gave everything to record 1:55:24 and 1:57:09 respectively. Becky Atkins, Robin Thorne and Karen Wilks were competitive in recording 1:58:47, 2:00:36 and 2:02:14 respectively before Alison Shearer, despite a fall, and Seran Bradley supported one another to record the same gun to tape time but different chip times of 2:11:24 and 2:10:56. Emily Atkins in a year of many running achievements managed another one here as she completed her first half marathon in a respectable 2:21:45.