Week Ending - 2021/10/31

HORTON HANDLES THE WET WELL WITH LEICESTER TRIUMPH

BADGERS of the WEEK

Group A

Andy Altoft

Group B

Mark Reynolds

Group C

Ivana Babicova

Chris Horton was in scintillating form at the Leicester Half Marathon on a ridiculously wet Sunday, running a new personal best and breaking his own vets club record in what could well rank as his best ever performance in a Badgers vest. In a quality field of over 1600 runners, the Atherstone man finished an impressive 7th overall, making light of the torrential rain that only abated around two hours after the beginning of the event. Runners were kept waiting as the start was put back by ten minutes to accommodate latecomers held up in the city with the filthy weather. Setting off with real intent, Horton had illustrious company for the first few miles as several award-winning stars of the 2021 Leicestershire Road Running League made their way into the leading dozen or so athletes. However, as the rain came down harder, one by one they dropped away as the high tempo he set became as relentless as the rain. He crossed the line in 77:27, finishing as the first veteran in the race earning him a share of the prize money as well as a rare platinum county standard. On a day where PB’s were understandably few and far between, the 46-year-old bucked convention and took almost two full minutes off his previous best, set at Wrexham in 2017, to record his first PB over any distance in two and a half years.

Fellow Badger Katrina Dawson was also in action in the race, recording a time of 2:18:01. After the race, the LRRL held their annual presentations with Horton picking up another award, this time for winning the V45 category in 2021. Two years ago, when the league last operated in full, he became the first Badger to claim an outright individual award when he won the V40 category and here he backed it up at the very first attempt. John Shade followed in Horton’s footsteps by becoming only the second person to manage similarly, taking the top honour in the V75 bracket, his performances good enough to have triumphed in the category below too. Once an 80-minute half marathoner in his heyday, the Hinckley man has shown no signs of slowing down since turning 70, helping himself to a fistful of club records in recent years. Matt Scarsbrook has taken the league by storm in his first full year and finished a superb 3rd male overall with Glyn Broadhurst continuing to improve even in his mid-forties to finish a close second to his Badgers team-mate in the V45 group, as the club featured prominently in the prizegiving ceremony.

On the same day, Coventry held their annual half marathon, with even more competitors racing as well as more Badgers. Jimmy Dewis was first back with a PB time of 91:14, a brilliant achievement for the 50-year-old former footballer. The popular Colin Lees made his return to race again after a 20-month hiatus running a quality 1:40:28 but the star of the morning was undoubtedly the in-form Cheryl Dewis who romped home in similarly awful conditions to the Leicester based runners, in a magnificent 1:41:44, improving her V50 club record by over five minutes, a terrific achievement from the svelte Stockingford barber. While not a PB, it significantly lowered her old record set earlier in the year of 1:47:01 at Boston in Lincolnshire. The industrious Matt Green was close behind in a typically hard fought 1:42:23 with newcomer Martin Graham running his best half marathon time in two decades thanks to his 1:48:32, with surely more to come as he continues to improve each week. Emma Masser got back, dripping wet in 1:56:06 and Russell Lomas in 1:57:04 ran a personal best time despite the heaviest of rain. New boy Nick Miles ran 2:00:49, his best time since turning 60. Sharon Jackson also finished the race as she continues her comeback from injury.

Elsewhere, Danny Warren won his race at the Mallory Park 5K, with runners grouped in waves according to speed, the Baddesley man stormed back in his heat in first place, his time of 17:24 not only a season’s best but good enough to earn him 42nd place overall on the day, in another wet event packed with quality athletes. Jill Miller broke the hour mark by just 11 seconds up at the Chester Zoo 10K race, just 24 hours after her parkrun at Chester on the Saturday. Stephanie White managed 2:10:30 over the half marathon distance at Calke Abbey in the Fractured Marathon event and Stephanie Attenborough took part in the Lulworth Cove Ultra on a wet Saturday, covering a challenging 32 miles in a fraction under ten hours, which handily for her was the race cut-off point.

At parkrun, Dave Hill was leading the way, quite literally at Kingsbury Water Park. He took a comfortable first place in 19:00 with team-mates Sam Starkey and Mark Repton 4th and 5th respectively a minute back. Ashley “T-Dogg” Taylor was in the thick of things once again as he sped back devilishly in 22:34. Tim Gould was next home in 23:15 with Matt Green, David Craig and 5K King Chris Davies continuing his incredible daily streak of 5K’s to 669. Wayne Repton, Mick Bailey, Steve Perry and Neil Thorne all went well as did Paul Wallace and first female Charlene Dunn in 26:57. Other runners included Sarah O’Donoghue, Ivana Babicova, Paul Cooper, John Restall and a trio of Smiths, namely Caroline, Andy and Vikki.

Top local registrar Gail Gunn flew the flag singlehandedly at Bedworth while key man Glyn Broadhurst had to settle for second at Babbs Mill with his valiant effort of 18:50. Marathon man Adam McElhone ran well as did Pip Weston while Eileen McElhone managed a PB of 34:24. Merv Jones led a quartet of Badgers back at Chasewater, Jo Hardy, Leesa Dennis and Karen Draper being the others. Rachael Shelton was in good shape again, this time finishing fourth female at Cannock Chase while John Devenney led the club home at Conkers accompanied by Glen Thomas, Dave Bailey, Sarah Vine and Terry Argyle.