NO-BEER KEIR IS A MARATHON PB’ER!

Battling Badgers star Keir Hardy took on the Leicester marathon on Sunday amid heavy rain in a bid to raise both funds and awareness for Myaware – a charity close to his heart that supports sufferers from the debilitating condition Myasthenia Gravis. Having embarked upon a tough training schedule and even abstaining from beer for a number of months, the hardworking father of two had high hopes of a good time in the event, looking to improve on his PB of 3:52 set in Manchester back in 2017. From the off, he knuckled down at a solid tempo, maintaining 7:40 minute miles right through to the 20-mile mark. With the rain becoming increasingly unhelpful, he dug deep over the final few miles despite suffering with the inevitable fatigue over this distance and somehow pulled out a whopping new PB of 3:27:20, a marvellous achievement. He wasn’t the only Badger in action at Leicester as V60 star Bob Lovegrove clocked a quite superb 3:45:55 in the trying conditions and the incomparable Karen Thompson notched up the 51^st marathon of her illustrious career with a gutsy time of 4:21:54. In the half marathon event at the same meet, Mark Repton stormed to a wonderful new best of 89:24 as his running continues to go from strength to strength, his first time under the iconic 90 minute barrier.

The annual Birmingham Half Marathon attracted no fewer than fifteen Bagers with Dave McGowan leading the way thanks to his magnificent time of 86:23, a personal best from the Baddesley man who only joined the club around a year ago. Men’s team vice-captain Rob Boland capitalised on his superb 2^nd place finish last week with a barnstorming 93:02 while Tim Gould made good progress on his road to full fitness with a steady 97:18. Colin Lees ran a PB of 99:53, another milestone moment for the V50 star who keeps getting better and better. Ashley T-Dogg Taylor got in on the action too with a fine time of 1:41:37 with Gavin Crockwell (1:46:16 – PB) and Ian Orton (1:46:56) both cashing in on their recent hard graft with well earned bests. Emma Masser was first lady back in a rapid new PB of 1:50:25 as she continues to impress. Jon Davies ran 1:52:14 and Daryl Johnson 1:58:25 before Charlene Dunn showed tremendous character to dip in just under the two-hour mark (1:59:44) after a difficult week. Jenna Shaw and Zoe Cope resumed their partnership in 2:15:07 while Tracy Piper clocked a hard fought PB in 2:38:26. Helen Morgan rounded up the action with a time of 2:40:04 – a fabulous effort from someone so new to running.

Jimmy Dewis is a man of many sporting talents and last weekend he added marathon running to his already impressive resume which includes semi-professional football, cricket, and triathlon. His time of 3:48:30 was a sight to behold as beat several runners much younger than him including a couple of heavy smokers. Alan Argyle was also in marathon action once again, this time running the Isle of Wight marathon in 4:38:37.

Nivette Chester was in action at the Manchester Half Marathon helping pace Stephan Couture and his daughter Chloe in their attempt on the world record for a half marathon for a race wheel chair (non-self-propelled). At the time of writing, their time of 1:43:35 was still awaiting verification from the Guinness World Record officials.

Richard Hill was in Berlin for their 10K race, emerging with a time of 53:01 while Emma Vardy made a nostalgic return to the Pattingham Bells 10K. Justin Haywood had fun in the sun as he took a steady trot round the Lisbon half marathon while three brave Badgers took on the Petzl Night Trail run in north Wales with Adrian Payne leading the way for the club closely followed by key man Glyn Broadhurst. Nicki Bowman was first lady Bager back storming over the line after a late surge after her 18K effort.

At parkrun, numerous Badgers travelled to Bedworth for the #runandtalk event raising awareness for mental health and it was club stalwart and go-to guy Ashley Taylor who was first back in 23:31. Watch specialist Jared Karim was next back in 24:14 with Colin Lees, David “DC” Craig and Paul Bruce (25:14 – PB) all running nicely. The youthful Judy Parkes was first back for the ladies in 26:44 while Adam McElhone, Charlotte Oliver, Karen Thompson, Alan Argyle, Gail Gunn, Terry Argyle, Becky Kinson, Dave Bailey, Paul Cooper and Eileen McElhone all featured. Teresa Buck and her husband David also went.

At Conkers, Chris Baxter was back in the groove as he ran determinedly through tricky conditions to edge out local superstar Matt Adcock by three seconds in a winning time of 17:09. Dawn Cross, mother of Warton racing royalty and GB star Ellis Cross was next home with Paul Grubb and Jason Husselbee-Orwin both competing. At Kingsbury Water Park, Sam Starkey was upfront yet again as he finished a gallant second in 18:53 in wet and wild conditions. Dean Bowd impressed in 24:29 while the athletic Rachael Shelton was 7^th lady overall in 25:12. Veteran John Restall featured as did Fiona Meldrum, Amanda Gould and Peter Black.

Further afield, Chris Horton toughed it out at the highly scenic yet technically challenging Colchester Castle parkrun, beating all but one of the 399 runners in attendance, thanks to his time of 17:21. Richard Hill went further still making a Badger debut at the Hasenheide parkrun in Germany in 24:55. Gavin Crockwell bossed the show at Cannon Hill with a steady run of 24:01 with Jonathan Davies featuring at Worcester and Lesley Palmer rounding up the black and white action down in Taunton with her 33:03 at Longrun Meadow.