Week Ending - 2020/10/18
RIP-ROARING REPTON MAKES HIS MARK
Badgers vice-captain Mark Repton has been steadily improving since joining Badgers a few seasons ago and on Saturday last week he achieved a superb new half marathon personal best with a scintillating run in the Bedford Running Grand Prix. His previous best was 87:13 in the Bosworth Half set in 2019 but after training hard for last year’s London Marathon, the Dosthill based athlete has seen his performances ratchet up a level culminating in a superb 15th place finish in the opening LRRL of 2020, the Stilton 7 in February. Since then during lockdown, he has continued to quietly graft away and his effort was rewarded with a time of 81:07 in Bedford, over six minutes off his old best and earned him 15th place in the men’s race, a cracking display.
In Devon, the Maverick Jurassic Coast race went ahead with a variety of long distances and staggered starts attracting six Badgers this year. In the long event of 47.4 kilometres, Adi Payne, something of a maverick himself, tackled the spectacular yet challenging cliff-top terrain emerging back 7th overall in a time of 4:52. Teammate Dave Jenkinson followed him home in 5:50, a top effort from the soon to be V50 star while key man Glyn Broadhurst high hopes of a high finish were extinguished once he took a wrong turn, chasing the ultra-marathon distance runners and ultimately ended up trudging home forlornly, some eight miles over the marathon distance in a time of 5:59.
There was far more sensible 20K option which saw Jimmy and Cheryl Dewis running well, in-form Jim getting back in a superb 1:34 with wife Cheryl 4th in her category another 11 minutes later. Cameron Barnes clocked 1:43 in another decent run for him.
Back at home, the next round of the in-house Badgers Super League took place, once again over the 5K distance. Hannah Craig’s team “Cool Runnings” top the table after their narrow win, thanks in no small part down to the captain herself who bagged a great time of 26:52. Individually, the race was won by Angela Stallings, still a member despite now residing in North Carolina. She claimed the best improvement relative to her handicap in a field of 90 runners. Charlene Dunn was second and Mick Bailey third. There were Personal Bests galore, all ratified by the competition’s vigilante-style Strava checkers. Glyn Broadhurst, a veteran of over 150 parkruns produced a superb run of 17:42, seven seconds ahead of fellow veteran Sam Starkey who ran 17:49. Jimmy Dewis (19:41) and Dave Grant (19:45) both ran faster than ever before despite being in their 40’s and they were joined in the sub-20 club by Dug Ladkin who dipped inside by nine seconds.
Karen Draper ran her second 5K PB in as many weeks in 32:23, showing that hard graft does eventually pay off, an exceptional accomplishment. Jason Clover produced a top performance, a week after running the virtual London marathon alongside his wife Kerry, the dad of three managing a quality 22:51. Hard-hitting floor-fitting phenomenon Mark Cox equalled his best in 18:32 and Carl Savage is another set to join the sub 20 gang if he keeps going, his time here of 20:26 was another solid effort from a reliably solid operator. Men’s skipper Simon Currier had two reasons to celebrate, as he ran a best ever 22:24 the day before his 41st birthday and Dave Buck was another to get in on the action with 25:52 as he shows real signs of things to come.
Overall, Aaron Chetwynd and Nivette Chester were first back in terms of time once again in the men’s and women’s line-ups with Maggi Savin-Baden’s team of chargers lying nicely poised in second place in the team standings ahead of Dave Jackson’s side. In his post-race interview, Jackson, a real man’s man, was at pains to illustrate just how much the tournament means to him and his team. “I am determined to see my 5K performances continue on an upward curve and this is something I am seeing from my team too. Seeing the likes of Hannah (Coogan), Glyn and Dug all giving it absolutely everything for self-improvement as well as the team, is really heart-warming stuff. I am extremely proud of the effort from my troops and speaking on behalf of myself, I personally am under no illusions as to the magnitude of my role in proceedings which is why, to help lead by example, I have this week begun a new diet consisting primarily of tinned fish.”