Chris is flying!!!
Another busy weekend for the Club with the yellow vests figuring prominently in at least three races; the Derby Runner Cross Country Race at Holly Hayes Wood, the Derby 10-mile road race, the Alton Towers Half Marathon and Tamworth 10k. With a glut of fixtures in an effort to catch up with race postponements a lot of Clubs, including SDRR, are struggling to get complete teams out in the early Derby Runner Cross Country races. This was very much the case at Holly Hayes Woods on a great morning for running, over probably the most technical course in the series, seven stalwarts from the Club lined up on the start line. Steve Bullock, using the endurance gained from his recent marathon appearance, was first back in the men’s race with an excellent 16th place finish. Another blessed with excellent endurance, Mark Harriott ran well for 87th place with Andy Orme finding it difficult to balance making progress with a visit to the first aid ambulance finishing in 119th. Ross Ballinger continued his good cross-country form with an excellent 123rd place finish. The Club’s women, despite not being able to field a full team, performed brilliantly with Jenny Laing quickly back into the swing of things with a third-place finish followed by Christina Hawtin in a creditable 17th place and women’s captain Lisa Wright a few places back in 24th.
With arguably the best performance by an SDRR runner since racing restarted Chris Pearson shattered his own age group Club Record with a superb chip time of 57:47 and 23rd place in the Derby 10 miler. There was also an impressive performance by Dan Bower, who agonisingly just missed breaking the hour benchmark for ten miles as he recorded 60:40. Sebastian Van Dijk continued his good post lockdown form with a well-run 64:07. Emma Sharp flew the flag for the Club’s women with an excellent 93:12.
Before enjoying a family day out at Alton Towers theme park five runners from the Club had the small matter of tackling the half-marathon race distance. What they also had in common was a certain amount of aerobic endurance after they had all trained for and tackled an autumn marathon. The improving Micheal Walters led the way home with a chip time of 01:37.51 followed closely by David Green with 01:38.31. Katie Dennis recorded 01:56.05 with mother and daughter combination Sarah and Julianne Walters giving everything in recording 02:09.16 and 02:47.24, respectively.
Last but not least three members tackled the Tamworth 10k. Over a fast, flat course Colin Mee, continued his excellent recent form to record a chip time of 42:11 to clinch second place in the MV60 category while Paul and Tracey Glover both raced well to finish in 46:32 and 46:49 respectively.
