Week Ending - 2024/08/25

HORTON SETS THIRD CLUB RECORD THIS MONTH

In form, Badgers star Chris Horton continued his purple patch this month with his third club record in four races with a blistering run in the Lee Valley Velo Park 10-mile race near the Olympic Park in Stratford, East London. The route consisted of ten laps of the tarmac BMX track surrounding the velodrome, comprising a number of short, sharp ups and downs and with five different race distances available at the event, the course was awash with runners of all paces, meaning that a degree of weaving was required to maintain a high tempo and not get stuck behind lapped athletes.

Many, including Horton himself, believed that the 49-year-old had peaked back in 2022, the year of his last personal best performance but in August alone he has taken huge chunks of time off the Badgers vets club records for 5, 6 and now 10-mile distances. On a grey and wet day, he set out needing 61:49 for his final club standard time of the current campaign but given his recent form, set out boldly to give himself a shot at the longstanding V40 record he set at Countesthorpe in 2018. At the halfway stage, he was lying a comfortable second in the race and well ahead of schedule, and with gas in the tank, he was able to run a more measured second half to get over the line in a superb 57:28, a minute and twelve seconds off his epic John Fraser 10 run. This gave him his third club record of the month, a figure that was very nearly four as he missed the one-mile target by a single second in Colchester.

In other races, Liz Peel powered her way to another half marathon en route to her 100-race target. The Brooklyn Ice Cream Social Half in New York was her latest destination, and she successfully completed the 13.1-mile route in 2:01:32, earning the pacy professor a reward of a chocolate Häagen-Dazs, as well as two tangerine lollies and a bag of pretzels! In the Stone 5-mile race, speedy Suzy Farrell ran 42:48 for 25th placed female overall, another excellent effort in what has been a truly excellent season. 

At parkrun, Mark Repton took fourth and the aforementioned Farrell fifth at Tamworth Castle Grounds. Ryan Preece took first place at Sutton Park in a brisk 17:25, despite not feeling 100%. Matt Green took 7th at South Woodham Ferrers parkrun in his native Essex and long-serving Nivette Chester and Stephanie White both made the top ten at Kingsbury Water Park. Finally, Dave Jackson finished a fine fourth at a testing Boston parkrun with Sara Wilson earning the distinction of being the fastest and highest finishing female of the weekend with a quality first place at the same venue in 23:33. 

This week sees the Badgers return to the LRRL in the penultimate league race of 2024, the Rotherby 8. With the men already now champions, the onus will be on a resurgent in-form ladies’ outfit to produce a strong result to help them clinch promotion back into the topflight.