Week Ending - 2022/05/08

BADGERS OLD GUARD STILL DOING THE BUSINESS

Two long-serving Badgers have been making waves again this week with a pair of outstanding performances in different events. Chris Horton is in his tenth year with the club and on Monday night, he was in action at the Silverstone 10K, part of the East Midlands Grand Prix series. The conditions were less than ideal with strong winds negating many of the benefits provided by the fast, flat course. The race consists of two laps of the track and after hitting the halfway split in 17:12, the 47-year-old harboured ambitions of a sub-35-minute time. However, as the group he was in splintered away and legs became wearier, the second lap became a mighty battle with runners exposed to the wind alone. A dogged final half-mile enabled an in-form Horton to get to the line in 35:26, a seven-second improvement on his old PB set five years earlier and a new vets club record. Finishing in a respectable 14^th place out of over six hundred runners, he has now achieved personal bests at 5K, 10K, and both full and half marathon this season.

Club founder Nivette Chester boasts the longest stint of membership of all and on her 50^th birthday last week, she “celebrated” by taking on the 50-mile Pennine Barrier Ultra marathon alongside another 279 durable souls. The Badgers coach dug deep throughout, making light work of the 2750m of elevation and eventually got home in a time of 12:17, enough to finish in 109^th place in the overall standings, a herculean effort.

The Market Drayton 10K is a hugely popular event in the Midlands, yet often clashes with one of the Badgers Leicestershire League races. This year however, it did not yet many of the club missed the opportunity to give it a go, despite meaning to when the chance arose! Eight Badgers in total made it to the start line and two returned home with excellent new PB’s. Wayne Repton was the first of these with a terrific 44:14, his first ever sub-forty-five time a wonderful milestone for him and Eileen McElhone was the second in 66:39, another fine effort from a very determined lady. David Craig clocked a quality 45:39 with Adam McElhone finishing a few minutes later in 52:02. The Prosecco Prince John Dulson ran 51:42 and there was a blanket finish between young Anna Savin-Baden and the gnarly veteran triathletes Steph White and Anna’s mother Maggi. Youth prevailed in the end with Savin-Baden junior clocking 61:37, two and three seconds quicker than her older compatriots.

Elsewhere, Justin Haywood battled hard in 30-degree heat in the Lisbon half marathon in Portugal, emerging with a very creditable time of 1:47:11. Stephanie Attenborough was in action at the Marston Trussell based Rabbit Trail Festival, tackling consecutive 5K circuits up to a maximum of five. Liz Peel ran another half marathon, this time down the Long Mynd in Shropshire at the Revenge of the Fifth event.

At Kingsbury Water Park parkrun, there was a bumper Badger turn out with Mark Repton leading the club home in 4^th place overall, his time 19:35. Glyn Broadhurst is grafting his way back to full fitness, penetrating the top ten in 20:50 with Matt Green just missing out on a top ten berth in a brick 21:50. Big Dave Jackson, a colossus of distance running back in his heyday, failed to penetrate but it’s surely only a matter of time as he sped round in 22:02. Tim Gould (22:38), Sean White (23:45) and Wayne Repton (23:46) all made good time with veteran ace Andy Smith going sweetly in 23:59.

Cameron Barnes jogged round while Nicki Bowman finished 10^th lady with another quality effort. John Restall rolled back the years in 26:29, a cracking time with Nick Miles, Jill Miller and Paul Wallace all running too. They were accompanied by John & Anne Devenney, Vikki Smith, Steve Perry, Paul Cooper, Ivana Babicova and Amanda Gould.

Bushy parkrun is where it all began many years ago and the intrepid Sam Starkey (21:58) led a quartet of Badgers back including Rachael Shelton, Sharon Jackson, and Lil Souter. Peter Mann (24:41) did similarly at Cannock Chase as Sarah O’Donoghue, Gail Gunn and Fiona Reidy followed him home as well as the determined Teresa Satchell.

Also on tour were Lesley Palmer in Trelissick, Oliver Birch at Hillsborough, Stephanie Attenborough at Market Harborough, and Zoe Yeatman at Market Rasen. Kerry Clover and Yvonne Faulkner were at it in Ashbourne Rec while Florence and Mark Parkinson turned out at Alderford Lake. Andy and Holly Smith had Anne-Marie Matthews for company at The Wammy parkrun and Mick Judd was getting round at Bedworth with daughter Kate Rathbone.

Karen Thompson was tearing it up at Rosliston and down the road, Ashely Taylor nailed a course best at Conkers in 21:09, a top effort from a man in the form of his life. Mark Reynolds was also in attendance with Taylor. Last but not least was the brave foursome giving it plenty at Babbs Mill. Regulars Colin Lees, Ian Orton and Adam McElhone were doing their thing, but the star of the show was Jo Hardy who bagged a top ten finish in 28:49.