Week Ending - 2023/03/12

HILL TRIUMPHS IN NOTTS 10 RACE

In form Badgers star Dave Hill has produced some impressive efforts in recent weeks and none more so than at the Notts 10 race on Saturday where he stormed to a superb race win, blitzing the field with a time of 54:08, a big personal best. The pancake flat course loops around the National Watersports Centre at Holme Pierrepont and despite some tricky winds and no shortage of fowl foulage underfoot, the Polesworth man produced a truly dominant display, taking first place by over a minute. While it wasn’t the first race win of his career, the way in which his running is going, it certainly would be hard to argue that it wasn’t his best race so far as his hard training going into next month’s London marathon is already bearing juicy fruit. The marathon is now five weeks away and Hill is now odds-on to surpass Ryan Bennett’s club record of 2:39:43 set in Manchester five years ago. 

The Stafford half marathon saw personal bests achieved by the industrious Bill Gutheridge (98:09) and Megan Griffiths (1:49:28) and Liz Peel edged towards 50 half marathons completed with her 2:46 run at the Elephant Challenge run at Salcey Forest, Northamptonshire. The Chester 10K saw Vicki Brunston clock 96:01 while Vicki Jennings ran 71:45 over the same distance up in Fradley. 

Justin Haywood made the podium with his 3rd in age group success at the 11K Ap Victoria trail event in Portugal, the veteran ace managing 34th overall on a scorcher in the Algarve. 

Parkrun saw some limited action after adverse weather put paid to several events locally. Laura Starkey was the only winner of the morning as she romped to first place at Babbs Mill in 23:28 with teammate Rachael Shelton not far behind in 5th. Mark Repton was 3rd male in 19:19 with Sam Starkey (20:11) in 5th and Colin Lees (22:50) also going well alongside Adam McElhone and Wayne Repton. Adrian Parkes, Jill Miller and Paul Cooper found their way to Conkers and Leesa Dennis, Merv Jones and Mark Reynolds were just up the road in Rosliston.

Glyn Broadhurst ran 18:42 to take fifth place at Northampton parkrun whereas Nicki Bowman ran a speedy 24:37 in tenth as she looks to return to the form that won her races such as the Abbot Trail 5K back in her heyday. Holly and Andy Smith ran with Anne-Marie Matthews and Vicki Brunsdon at Banbury and Matt Green travelled back home to Essex to run in the Hadleigh parkrun. Russell Lomas made a pilgrimage to Bushy where parkrun began many moons ago. 

Next week sees the second instalment of the Leicestershire Road Running League 2023, specifically the return of the Kibworth 6. The race is one of the toughest on the calendar with the infamous Gumley Hill forcing large swathes of the field to slow down to a walking pace. The race sold out within minutes so a full field is expected on Sunday morning.