Week Ending - 2023/03/26

WARREN BEATS ALL-COMERS AS HILL GRABS ANOTHER CLUB RECORD

This week saw the annual migration of Badgers to the Ashby 20-mile road race. This event is the perfect distance at the perfect time of the year for those training for early-season marathons such as London and Manchester.

However, Badgers exploits including club records and PB’s galore were upstaged by club stalwart Danny Warren’s performance at the Uppingham Trail race. This event in the Rutland/Leicestershire hills had an elevation of over 900ft and was over 9miles, Danny stormed to victory in a little over an hour and in doing so beat his nearest rival by a massive 12 minutes, a staggering performance which even surprised the event organisers who were having a coffee when he crossed the finish line not expecting anyone for at least 5minutes.

Over at Ashby over 30 Badgers tackled this tough undulating 20-mile road race. First back for the club in a brilliant fourth place with a new PB by 10mins and new club 20mile record was the flying Dave Hill in 1:53:55. Next home was the ever-improving Chris Tweed 2:09:39 also making the top 50. Sam Starkey 2:26:36, Ashley Taylor 2:33:31, Dave Jenkinson 2:37:40, James Stilgoe 2:37:40, Matt Green 2:45:44 and Wayne Repton all ducking under the three-hour mark with Dave Jenkinson improving his PB by over 18mins. Rob Crow was just outside the 3hr mark in 3:02:50 followed over the line 5-minutes later by first lady Badger Megan Griffiths who, making her debut at the Ashby event, managed an excellent 3:08:12. Bill Gutheridge 3:08:12, Adam McElhone 3:11:59, Hannah Coogan 3:17:59, Sharon Jackson 3:18:01, and Karen Thompson 3:27:34 all managed under 31/2 hours with Adam and Sharon Grabbing PB’s. Jo Davies 3:37:25 and Lee Talbot were the next to finish followed by Paul Cooper and Sarah Vine who finished together in 3:42:21, the former knocking almost 50mins of his previous Ashby time and the latter just happy to be running after a traumatic few years. 5 minutes further back was Mark Cordiner-Barton in 3:47 followed by Anne-Marie Currier 3mins later 3:50:37 who, after illness, weather, and covid cancellations managed to complete and ‘get the monkey off her back’. Anna Savin-Baden 3:58:09 and Eileen Mcelhone 3:57:26 with a 17min pb also ducked under the 4hr mark. Karen Draper 4:03:55, Anne & John Devenney 4:11:41 and Fritz Loma 4:17:53 were the next to finish with Vicki Brunsdon, Gemma Spencer and Peter Mann coming home together in just over 4:18 with Gemma setting pb’s at every distance between 2miles and half marathon, with Juliette Trollope rounding out the clubs finishers in 4:43 and a pb