Week Ending - 2022/04/03

BADGERS MAGIC MARATHON MEN

Some thirteen Badgers men took on a marathon at the weekend and between them returned with an array of notable new personal bests, London marathon qualifying times and a new club record. Our story begins in Paris where Dave Hill was first to begin. The Polesworth man has been in decent form so far in 2022 and he relished the challenge of an overseas marathon in the French capital. One of the few club members with a sub-three time to his name, he set off in determined not to mention pacy fashion. His halfway split was a jaw-dropping 77:30 which extrapolated would have earned him a finish time of 2:35, however, the marathon is a long, arduous affair and the battle of the second half is where great times are made, when energy levels diminish, and legs lose their liveliness. Hill indeed slowed slightly on the way back but not enough to stop him taking another minute off what was already an impressive personal best. His time of 2:42:08 was good enough to earn him a finish position of 275^th out of almost 35,000 runners, a quite brilliant achievement.

On home soil, the Manchester marathon saw no fewer than eleven Badgers break four hours with Dave McGowan leading the way home. The 30-year-old Baddesley man was knocking on the door of the sub-three club with his 3:01 debut at London in 2019 but here he made his 26.2-mile return with a barnstorming effort to leave followers in doubt whatsoever about just how good he is. Racing in his own style, he went through halfway in a brisk 78:14 but still had the resolve over the final few miles to hang on bravely despite the energy being sapped from his weary legs with each stride. He was haemorrhaging time come the final two miles but admirably stuck at his task to make the top 400 runners in another mammoth field of over 14,000, with a staggering time of 2:46:07, a PB with over a quarter of an hour to spare!

Next through in 2:46:55 was Chris Horton, back in action some five years after his last competitive marathon. Like his teammate McGowan up the road ahead of him, he too blitzed the first half of the race in just over 80 minutes and had to hang on right at the death. A combination of grit and experience helping him to cross a finish line that could not come soon enough but in doing so he achieved a personal best by nine minutes, shaved time off Glyn Broadhurst’s outstanding vets club record and also became the first Badger ever to record an 80%+ wava rating over the marathon distance.

The hits just kept on coming. Ryan Preece was next over the line in a real high quality 2:48:43, yet another PB earned off the back of some seriously dedicated winter training. Despite his relative inexperience over the distance, Preece paced his race as well if not better than any of his teammates. Another high positional finish was earned along with a qualifying standard for the 2023 London marathon as well as achieving the marathon runner’s holy grail of a sub-three time in one of his first attempts over the distance.

There is nobody in the club blessed with as good an engine as Mark Cox. Just two weeks after his epic Ashby 20 run, he was back at it here in Manchester, unsure whether he would have the stamina to race two long-distance events in such quick succession. He need not have worried as he absolutely tore up his old PB by over half an hour, emerging with a time of 2:51:56, the run of the day in the eyes of many. All expectations were exceeded as he bulldozed his way into the sub-three club, a magnificent yet completely deserved reward for all his grafting.

Adrian Payne’s love-hate relationship with the marathon took a significant turn for the better. A runner of considerable talent for several seasons now, here he was able to exorcise the demons of marathons past with the fifth sub-three run of the day, improving his previous best by an unprecedented 42 minutes with a wonderful performance of 2:54:09. He very nearly managed to even split the race only really suffering in the final two and a half miles. Thankfully, he held it together and ploughed on to claim another deserved London qualifying time. In just one race, Badgers had almost doubled their number of current members with a sub-three marathon to their name.

Marathons require a great deal of courage to complete but even more so when you factor in having to deal with the sudden loss of a close relative in the immediate run-up. That, sadly, was what Cameron Barnes had to deal with and with start temperatures coming in at about two degrees, you could have easily forgiven him for bailing out. But Barnes is a remarkable young man and summoned great inner strength to not only complete the task ahead of him, for which he had trained diligently in the months prior, but to emerge with a new personal best time of 3:14:20, a truly outstanding effort from the Atherstone man.

His friend and teammate Ashley Taylor followed him three minutes later in another PB time of 3:17:23. The Warton ace, like Barnes has really applied himself to putting the work in over the winter and nobody could begrudge him such a special and deserved finish time. Carl Savage was soon back, in 3:19:25, another personal best for the industrious men’s captain who’s running career shows no sign of peaking just yet. Neil Clemons had trained hard for this event, his debut marathon, but an ankle injury sustained in the week leading up to the race scuppered his hopes of an ideal time and he considered himself fortunate to be on the start line at all. He finished in a very respectable 3:32:24 as well as great credit for getting the race done at all.

Veteran ace Stefan Martin didn’t want to miss out on the PB action as he lopped a mammoth 15 minutes off his old best to join the sub-four club with an excellent run of 3:47:44. Rob Crow epitomises commitment to the Badger cause and is well known as an eight-mile specialist as the holder of the V50 club record for that distance. Cheered on by his partner Jo Davies, he showed his versatility by taking on the marathon and reaped the rewards of another sustained spell of hard winter training to grab another personal best time of 3:53:23. To achieve a PB in your late fifties over any distance, least of all the marathon, is an achievement not to be sniffed at and extra kudos must be awarded for this very reason. Finally, newcomer Warren Clamp made his distance debut in 5:45:51.

Away from the marathon and much closer to home was the 10-mile Cathedral to Castle race travelling from Lichfield to Tamworth and Badgers enjoyed yet another bumper turnout with some 26 athletes getting stuck into the multi-terrain course. First back in a time of 78:04 was Martin Graham who put in a terrific shift, hopefully, a sign of more good things to come. He was followed home by Adrian Parkes, the V60 star producing a cracking time of 84:26 while Nicki Bowman was first Badger female to finish with a pacy 85:00, a stunning effort. Steve Perry came through in 86:32 before Paul Grubb popped up with an injury-time winner in 92:20. Clare Whetton showed no signs of fatigue following her triumphant Ashby 20, powering home in 95:04, ahead of John Restall, Charlotte Oliver, Christine Morris, Ross Kilburn, Mandy Stain and the much-improved Karen Draper. Caroline Smith, accompanied by husband Andy ran her first ten miler in 96:08 with John Devenney next through in 1:40:06. Hannah Coogan ran well in 1:41:19 as did Badgers stalwart Paul Restall in 1:46:24. Nicola Stanley, Averil Caton, newcomer Laura Cummings and Mandy Restall all finished well within 1:50 and the action didn’t end there as the plucky Sarah O’Donoghue, Paul Cooper, Andy Venney, Fiona Hutton and Terry Argyle all got round safely to milk the increasingly noisier Badger roar.

Steph White is a popular figure at Badgers, and she has had a tough few years to say the least but she very recently returned to racing after a sustained period of injury. Not only did she make a comeback, but she ended up with an age category win in the 10K Monsal Trail run in 55:22, a great effort. Elsewhere, two Badgers featured at the London Landmarks half marathon. Sarah Baggott made her distance debut in 2:37:00 while Juliette Trollope ran a PB of 2:49:42.

Parkrun saw more than a smattering of action with yet another solid showing at Kingsbury Water Park where Mark Repton, Sam Starkey, David Craig and Neil Thorne all made the top ten men. Dave Jackson ran a season’s best 18:45 at Walsall Arborectum, something not to be sniffed at, with Glyn Broadhurst managing 19:34 despite a broken arm. Dave Grant (21:57) and Mick Bailey (22:57) both enjoyed speedy times at Chasewater and last but not least was Rachael Shelton who was an excellent second lady at a quick Oaklands course with her time of 24:11.