Week Ending - 2023/06/11

HORTON CHASES GLORY WHILE BADGERS BOMBARD BARMOUTH

The warm weather of the past week did little to deter Badgers from racing across a range of events all around the country. At Prestwold near Loughborough on Thursday evening, Chris Horton took on the ten-mile distance at the Chase The Sun event in an attempt to complete a full set of club standards for the season. Needing to achieve a time of 63:26 or quicker, he made his forthright intentions clear from the start, generating an early lead over Holme Pierrepoint star Dave Greenwood. Six laps of the barren former airfield can be a pretty dull experience for even the most seasoned runner, unless they have a particular interest in seeing row upon row of ground-based solar panels and this warm and blustery evening in Leicestershire did not disappoint in either regard. Horton however, much like the former EastEnders star Gillian Taylforth, got his head down and continued to apply pressure to the chasing runners. After halfway, athletes competing in the 10K and 5K distances joined the fray making it near impossible to see the size of any gaps over chasing runners and with this in mind, there was minimal let-up in pace as the finish line approached. Horton took the win by 50 seconds in 60:06, his first race victory in four years and at the age of 48, quite possibly his last, who knows?

Another Badgers athlete smashing it out of the park was the industrious Eleanor Fowler who took a superb second place at the Coniston 15K trail race in Cumbria. Surrounded by some of the most stunning scenery England has to offer, the veteran star was only beaten by an international fell runner, her time of 83:02 a very impressive achievement all the same. 

Through luck rather than judgement, Badgers saw scores of their membership base travel to the seaside on the hottest days of the year to date, to take part in the annual Barmouth 10K. A scorcher of a race was followed by a super social set-up covering the entire weekend. In the race, Dave Hill became the third Badger of this report to make the podium, with a magnificent 34:41 as his super season continues. Ryan Preece returned after injury to make the top 20 in 37:48 with Adrian Payne getting around safely in 40:22. Liberty Underhill was the first lady back in 48:00 and 16th overall, a great run in testing temperatures from one of the finds of the season. 

Gnarled veterans Jimmy Dewis, Bill Gutheridge and Dave Jenkinson carried on the good work before Dave Grant and Megan Griffiths battled their way back to the finish line. V60 record holder Peter Mann rolled back the years with a top-quality time of 51:50 before V70 ace Mick Bailey surpassed Ted Franklin’s long-standing club record time with an uber-brisk 52:30. Bailey will have to wait until the Prestwold 10K later in the month to claim the record however as the Barmouth race is ineligible due to there being large sections of trail. 

Pip Weston was the third Badger female back ahead of 8-mile specialist Rob Crow whose brainchild it was to make a weekend of things in Wales. Adrian & Judy Parkes, Mandy Stain, Yvonne Faulkner, Ross Kilburn and Jo Davies all ran well as did the returning Simon Currier, one of the most decorated and successful captains in the club’s history. There were reports circulating that Badger runners were going particularly quickly around the course in order to be back into the bars of Barmouth momentarily quicker, which would go some way to explaining the dozens of excellent times achieved. Alicia Gutheridge continued her good form with the reliable Janet Crumpton, Kerry Clover, Eileen McElhone and Sarah Vine in close pursuit. Ann-Marie Currier for once could not keep pace with husband Simon, perhaps having ordered him up the road to dutifully buy a round of drinks in readiness for the end of the race. Paul Cooper, Karen Draper, Gail Gunn, Fiona Reidy and Debbie Bremner all finished well, each one under the watchful eye of the club’s new performance director Glyn Broadhurst, who must be extremely pleased with the efforts of his charges. 

The popular Two Castles 10K took place in Kenilworth attracting seven Badgers in total. Colin Lees (48:25), Sharon Jackson (57:23) and Kat Wilson (58:49) all did well to break the hour mark before Anna Savin-Baden crossed the line in 66:45. Terry Argyle, Kate Rathbone and Vicky Jennings were the others to brave the soaring temperatures. Elsewhere Jack Burton-Peet ran 46:30 in the Cheltenham Racecourse 10K, thankfully free of National Hunt fences. 

In addition to all this drama, there was plenty at parkrun on Saturday morning, the highlights being Danny Warren’s superb 16:52 at Walsall Arboretum. His sixth-place run of 16:52 was just one-second shy of his personal best, a benchmark surely achievable now in cooler weather. Mark Repton and Jill Miller once again featured in the top ten at Kingsbury while Sam Starkey clocked 19:23 to finish 5th at Watermead Park in Leicester.