Week Ending - 2019/07/21

KAREN’S THE CREAM OF THE CROP AT ENIGMA MARATHON

Long-serving Badgers star Karen Thompson secured the second race win of her career with another superb performance at the Milton Keynes based Enigma Marathon last week. Running alongside her friend and former Badger Olivia Stacey, the resilient 36-year-old finished some 16 minutes ahead of third place to take joint first position with 100 Marathon Club member Stacey. They crossed the line together in a quality 4:44:38 as Thompson continues to make great progress towards her ultimate goal of completing 100 marathons, with 63 now already in the bag. Of the current membership, only Matt Tonks has completed more than one hundred and Thompson could become the first female to achieve this feat should she stay fit and motivated.

Badgers fielded an impressive five teams at this year’s Conti 24 hour run at Catton Park. Some 32 club members battled all weather aspects over the weekend to complete consecutive laps of a challenging 6 mile off road course and while no team was able to match the feat of last years mixed 8’s winners, a great time was had by all concerned. Ladies skipper Sarah Jane Chetwynd led a large mixed team including her steady vice-captain Ann-Marie Currier, multiple club-record holder Monika Lampart, Judy Parkes, husband and wife duo Carl and Esther Holyoak and local multi-sport icon, Jimmy Dewis. Their team were augmented by the experience of former men’s captain Adrian Payne who was part of the winning team last year. Their combined efforsts resulted in a terrific 25 laps between them earning the side 29^th place within their category. The quintet of Ian Orton, Dave Jenkinson, Colin Lees, Cameron Barnes and hard-hitting, floor-fitting king-pin Mark Cox battled tremendously hard to make 11^th place in their group, just two minutes off a top ten spot, the gang amassing 26 laps, the most of any Badgers side on the weekend, roughly 156 miles.

They were pushed hard by Eamon Thawley, Simon Currier, Keir Hardy, veteran Alan Argyle and fellow stayer Rob Crow. They racked up a creditable 24 laps as a quintet. Clare Whetton’s side of Jenna Davies, Ray Cope, Maggi Savin-Baden, Vicky Cawley and the two Jo’s, Hardy and Davies managed an excellent 20 laps along with former Badger and marathon man Adie Kirkham in attendance. While the team of Helena Rean, Jon & Emma Vardy, Charlene Dunn, Tim Gould, Dave McGowan and the steady Kay Whitehead managed a heroic 25 laps placing them 30^th out of 185 teams in their field.

Richard Chester made the trip to Aintree to take on the annual half marathon race and achieved his target time with minutes to spare thanks to some good pacing from wife Nivette. At the time of going to press, it was still unclear if his time of 2:03:57 included jumping over Becher’s Brook twice but suffice to say the time resulted in a hard fought PB. Dave Bailey, Becky Kinson and Zoe Cope all took part in the Coventry Sunrise 5K event while over at Daventry, Yvonne Faulkner completed her first ultra-marathon distance race at the Big Bear event. Anne-Marie Matthews also went as did Paul Bruce who managed the half marathon distance.

Kingsbury parkrun saw a wealth of Badgers taking part on Saturday and were it not for team GB star Hayley Carruthers and her coach enjoying a quick blast in setting a new female course record, Badgers would have enjoyed an unprecedented 1-2-3-4. In form 5K specialist Chris Baxter sped round in third place overall, just three seconds outside of his club record and within seeing distance of the leading duo in 16:30. The lightly raced Damo Taylor finished fourth, hanging on in 17:09 after a blistering start with heavily raced team mate Chris Horton eleven seconds back in 5^th. Dave Jackson powered home in 18:13 as he edges his way back to form after a lengthy injury lay off, sixth place overall.

Mark Repton followed home next in 15^th place (19:44) with Sam Starkey clocking 21:23 and Matt Green striding back in good time. Key man Justin Haywood returned to action after recent surgery for a hernia with Lee Millership maintaining his excellent 2019 form in 22:25. Nivette Chester was first female back and 6^th overall in 22:33. Michael Bailey showed impressive pace yet again ahead of Darryl Johnson, Sharon Jackson, Lil Souter, Matt Jackson and Paul Wallace. The energetic Becky Kinson was a vision of steadiness as she sped round in 26:17 while Ashley Taylor, Rachael Shelton, Jared Karim, Paul Restall, David Craig, Michael Ball, Glen Thomas, Terry Argyle, Nicola Stanley and Chloe Zope all did well. The industrious Leesa Dennis led home a pack of Badgers inclusive of Peter Black, Fiona Meldrum and Bill Gutheridge. Holly Matts ran 36:34 ahead of Mark Robinson, Andy Smith and Sarah Grant. Merv Jones is as steady as they come and he made a welcome return to action as did the genial so-to-be octogenarian Ted Franklin, current V70 club record holder for the distance. But the action did not stop there as firstly Mandy Hanson and finally Helen Tibby both made it round in time for the annual Chris Groom relay race.

Elsewhere, Matt Tonks finished a fine 4^th place at Leamington parkrun in a respectable 18:56 with John Hanson making the top 15 at Churchfield Farm parkrun. Chris Upton, Dave Bailey, Paul Grubb and John Dulson all travelled to Conkers with Richard Hamblett heading to Rosliston. Wayne Repton was in action at the Tamar Trails parkrun and the well-liked Richard Hill ran 26:21 down at Aylesbury. Vicki Fowler clocked 50:58 at South Shields in the north east. Adam McElhone was in action at Perry Hall with a speedy 24:55 with Neil and Katy Clemons rounding up the action in Woolacombe Dunes parkrun.