Week Ending - 2019/12/01

250 UP FOR ALAN WHO CELEBRATES WITH A MARATHON

Former Badger of the Year Alan Argyle became just the third member of the club to make 250 parkrun appearances following his trip around the 5K Conkers circuit where it all began for the amiable retired accountant. Merv Jones, Terry Argyle, Leesa Dennis, Paul Cooper, Katrina Dawson, Dave Bailey and Nicola Stanley were with him to mark the occasion. Only club legends John Hanson and Richard Hill have run more parkruns and Argyle celebrated in the only way he knows how, by running a marathon the following day as he joined Liz Peel and Yvonne Faulkner at the Big Bear Oak Challenge at Hicks Lodge.

Also in marathon action was the Big Dog himself, Hurley’s finest, Damo Taylor, who travelled to Valencia in Spain off the back of a long, hard training schedule, hoping for big things. Sadly for the dad of two, things did not go to plan as a calf problem early on forced him to shift down a gear with less than fifteen minutes gone but the Polesworth based star showed typical strength of character as he battled on to the finish recording a time of 2:56:16. While only three other club members have beaten this mark, Taylor was understandably disappointed, his PB is 2:40:40 and given his form, this would have been undoubtedly troubled were it not for his calf scuppering things.

Back at parkrun, Chris Horton returned to action after a spell out to bag 2nd place at Kingsbury Water Park. Like Argyle, he too clocked up a milestone event, 150 for him and this was his 100th time at the water park which saw the seldom used double lapper course pressed into action after icy conditions threaten the event from going ahead. His time of 19:04 was some way off his best but enabled him to maintain his streak of 150 consecutive top ten finishes. Kingsbury mainstay Matt Green was next back in a superb 21:22 with former skipper Carl Holyoak toughing it out in 21:31. Jack Reynolds continued to show great promise as he sped home in 22:07 despite some testing conditions which combined the worst of slippy mud and greasy ice. Next through was Colin Lees in 22:41 with Fantasy Football ace Lee Millership putting in another respectable time of 23:27. Kingsbury star Mick Bailey clocked 24:18 ahead of Tim Gould, Darryl Johnson, David Craig and Mark Reynolds.

The spritely Rachael Shelton finished an excellent seventh lady overall in 26:20, with Felicity Gray, Sarah Reynolds and Teresa Satchell all going well. Paul Wallace and Gervase Lancaster battled hard as did Richard Hamblett, back in action with his buggy. Lil Souter, John Hanson, Mandy Hanson, Vicki Fowler and Amanda Gould also went.

There was great success in the sparsely attended Pont y Bala parkrun in north Wales where Badgers key man Glyn Broadhurst outsprinted younger team mate Adrian Payne in a thrilling sprint finish to take first place by a single second. Payne managed 19:55 to come second, not the first time he has been beaten off this season, despite a real explosive finale. Nicki Bowman was third lady back in 26:54.

Elsewhere, Eamon Thawley marked his 100th parkrun as he accompanied Jared Karim, Richard Hill and Yvonne Faulkner at the fledgling The Whammy event near Wolverhampton. Karen Missen was out in force at Cannock Chase while Mark Repton ran a rapid 18:53 at Long Eaton, the quickest time of the weekend while brother Wayne ran a healthy 22:53. Carl Savage was beasting it up at Sherwood Pines breaking 30 minutes with breathtaking ease.