Week Ending - 2022/11/13

RECORD BREAKERS: PREECE POWERS TO PARKRUN BEST WHILE WESTON BAGS RECORD NUMBER FIVE

After an extended period without a club record falling, two went in the same weekend with Ryan Preece and Pip Weston both achieving impressive feats. Brainbox Preece was at Walsall Arboretum for an attempt at the club parkrun record. The fast three-lap 5K course is renowned for its ability to produce quick times and on ideal day weather wise Preece took full advantage running three almost identically paced laps to edge Chris Baxter’s old mark by two seconds in a superb 16:25. Any record is impressive enough but what makes the parkrun one particularly so, is that it is far and away the most commonly run event. There have been tens of thousands of attempts by Badgers over the years and Preece in only his fourth go, sits proudly on top of the pile.

Pip Weston stormed to her fifth individual club record the following day, with a terrific run at the well-attended Alton Towers 5K. Over 1400 runners gathered for the gallop around the theme park, queueing was definitely not part of the deal! The Atherstone-based short to medium-distance specialist sped around half a minute quicker than Helena Rean’s previous best to take the V60 women’s club record in a quality 25:59. Dave Purvis was also at Alton Towers in the half marathon event, returning with an excellent time of 1:54:21.

Also featuring at Walsall parkrun behind Preece’s lightning second-placed run was the effervescent Dave Jackson who after being paced through the opening lap by teammate Adrian Payne, left him for dead at the toilet block to race home in a course best time of 18:26 and with it a sought after sixth place finish. Adrian Parkes ran a solid 23:32 with Rachael Shelton taking 5^th lady in a brisk 24:09.

At Kingsbury Water Park, Chris Horton and Glyn Broadhurst backed up their 1-2 from the prior week with yet more of the same. It was the former who was first back in 18:37 with his fellow keyman keeping the opposition at bay in second spot, 33 seconds behind. Tim Gould and Matt Green ran well, just falling outside if the top ten overall while Megan Griffiths was denied what would have been her third win in four, ultimately being outpaced as she finished an excellent second in 23:46. Pual Wallace, Mark Cordiner-Barton, Matt Smith and Jill Miller all did well as did Nicki Bowman, Ivana Babicova, Vikki Smith and Steve Perry. Poppy Peel made a successful return to action too following surgery care of her doting handler Liz.

Cannock Chase welcomed a touring team of Martin Graham, Colin Lees, Dave Jenkinson, Paul Restall, Nicola Stanley, Ann-Marie Currier, Paul Cooper, Karen Draper and Leesa Dennis. Graham was first back in 22:22 but the star of the show was Eileen McElhone who ran a determined new PB of 30:12, that sub-30 time getting tantalisingly closer.

Elsewhere, Lisa Barnes ran 38:26 at Bedfont Lakes and Anne-Marie Matthews achieved her first sub-40 time in over two and a half years with her 39:16 at South Manchester, accompanied by the intrepid Andy and Holly Smith. This was her 200^th parkrun overall. Newlywed couple David Grant and Yvonne Faulkner ran Rugby and Ash Taylor was the sole Badger at Conkers. Sharon Jackson clocked 26:34 at Wollaton Hall, John and Anne Devenney ran Lichfield behind Sean White (23:54) and the Starkeys were back in the groove at Alvaston with Sam managing 10^th place in 18:34 and Laura 12^th in 25:23. Wayne Repton travelled to Victoria Dock and Adam McElhone led a quintet of Badgers home at Babbs Mill, the in-form music aficionado bagging a time of 26:47 with Jo Hardy alongside him.

Last but not least, Gemma Spencer ran 36:45 alongside teammates Mick Bailey, Fiona Hutton, Pete Mann and Fiona Reidy at the Sutton Park-based Poppy Run for Armistice Day.