Allestree XC, Buff Winter Trail HM & 4VHM

Andy out in front!
This weekend was again an active weekend for members of South Derbyshire Road Runners with the majority in action at the 4^th leg of the 2017/18 Derby Runner XC League at Allestree. Andy Hawtin, in cold, snow covered conditions, led the Club’s representative’s home with an excellent 22^nd place finish in 43:43. Ross Clarke continued his build up to April’s London Marathon with a strong running 57^th place finish in 46:18 just edging out another London bound athlete, Mark Harriott in a very creditable 60^th place in 46:41. Regular team scorers Christian Glover, Andy Windle and Andy Orme gave their usual maximum effort to finish in 67^th, 75^th & 89^th places and times of 47:13, 48:06 & 49:17 respectively. Matt Long continued his good form to finish in 97^th in 49:55 before Colin Mee made the short journey from his nearby home to continue his efforts to secure the series MV60 prize with 107^th in 50:44. James Gough, Adrian Middleton and Steve Leafe ran well to finish in 116^th, 129^th and 131^st in times of 51:11, 52:54 and 53:00 respectively.  Romain Chambard and the injury hampered Nigel Atkins battled through the wintry conditions to record times of 54:37 and 56:06 and finishing positions of 157^th and 167^th. Paul Glover got the better of Kevin Clarke as they stopped the clock in 56:36 and 57:37 in very creditable 173^rd and 183^rd places. Ray Udall is another with his eye on a series, age group win and his 196^th place in 59:11 can only have consolidated his place at the top of the MV70 category. Mitchell Timms made a very welcome racing appearance for the Club to finish in 204^th in 60:33 with Paul Hudson, a deserving recent choice as most improved male runner in 2017, giving everything to finish a couple of places further back in 61:10. Chris Elsegood continued gaining valuable racing experience as he finished in 215^th in 62:38 before the more experienced London Marathon bound Steve Fowler continued his return from injury with 63:25 and 219^th place. Tony Richards, who recently joined the growing band of Club members who have completed 100 Parkruns, completed the finishers for the Club in the men’s race in 233^rd in a time of 66:42.
The Club’s women, led by the redoubtable Jenny Laing, continued their push for promotion from Division 2 with Jenny running superbly for 4^th place in the women’s race in 46:31. As always valuable team support was provided by Nikki Reeves, Tracey Glover and Becky Atkins as they finished in 45^th, 63^rd and 73^rd places in excellent times of 56:55, 59:47 and 62:22 respectively.
Men’s Club Champion Alun Lloyd Thomas, Chris Pearson, Shane Chapman and Kelvin Taylor went out of the country on Saturday, well to Coed-y-Brenin in Wales, to tackle the Buff Winter Trail Half Marathon. Alun Lloyd Thomas led the group home in a brilliant 7^th place finish in 1:36:33 with the ultra-competitive Chris Pearson gritting it out for a superb 1:38:09 and 11^th place. Strong man Shane Chapman battled well for his 41^st chip position in 1:46:59. The fore mentioned trio have tackled the challenging Coed-y-Brenin trails before but this was not the case for Kelvin Taylor who will gain considerably from the experience of finishing in 321^st place in 2:33:12.
On Sunday Chris Mason was in action in the Essar Four Villages Half Marathon. In a mixture of sleet and rain Mason recorded a chip time of 1:34:16 for 229^th place out of 2024 and 1^st place in the MV65 category.