Week Ending - 2024/11/24

BADGERS AT THE DOUBLE

Storm Bert threatened the existence of many if not most parkruns over the weekend, but Kingsbury Water Park managed to go ahead despite the adverse weather which even saw the ultra-rare cancellation of the robust Conkers parkrun. And on the 500th running of the event, it was fitting that both the men’s and ladies’ races were won by two Badgers, the club with several members on the core parkrun team including event director Hannah Burgess. Badgers were pivotal to the event’s origins with Nivette Chester and Richard Hill amongst others particularly influential in bringing the Saturday morning 5K community run to life in the first place. 

First over the finish line was Mr Reliable, Glyn Broadhurst, delivering a wet-weather masterclass to take the top spot in 18:55 while Mark Jarvis and Mark Repton also both made the top ten with solid efforts of 20:46 and 20:52 respectively. Ladies captain Megan Griffiths stormed her way to a field leading 23:19, yet another highlight in a season packed full of them. The fleet-footed deputy headmistress was not the only Badger female forcing her way into the top ten as at least four other teammates pushed hard to place highly. The rapid Rachael Browne bagged fourth in 25:41, five seconds ahead of the up-and-coming Grace Barsby in fifth and the founding figure Nivette Chester in seventh. Rising star Megan Church produced a fantastic course best run to finish ninth female on a day ill-suited to quick times and personal bests. With dozens of other Badgers in attendance for the water-based spectacular, it was a memorable occasion for all the right reasons, especially when Jane Barrett crossed the line to complete her 250th parkrun in total. Sam Starkey can lay claim to having run as fast as anyone in the field at Kingsbury in the past, here he helped his young son Ryan record a PB time with negative splits and a magnificent top ten wava performance in the entire field, not bad for five years of age it has to be said. No Badger in the race has ever run 5K faster than Terry Taylor, however. The one-time sub-16-minute merchant was back under thirty minutes for the extravaganza which saw his fiancée Lil Souter, a core team stalwart, clocking up an appearance alongside kids and dogs to make it a real family affair. 

Clare Carter and Karen Draper managed to run at Market Bosworth while Holly and Andy Smith both notched up another course on their ever-expanding list, this time at Blaise Castle near Bristol. 

Away from parkrun, Wayne Repton managed the second fastest half marathon of his storied career with a 1:40:38 at the Clowne Half where Colin Lees ran 1:47 and Liz Peel 2:19 on a testing day weather-wise, with high winds and persistent rain wreaking havoc. Ashley Taylor ran 45:05 in the Silverstone 10K, two laps of the Formula One race track on what is a flat but very exposed course as he will tell you. Alice Belcher completed fourteen miles of the Big Bear Canicross race, her longest length to date. Vicki Brunsdon, Eve King and Juliette Trollope did similarly. 

For better weather, you had to head for Benidorm in Spain where the annual half marathon and 10K took place along the beachfront and beyond. David Grant and Yvonne Faulkner-Grant ran the shorter distance in 1:01:01 cheered on by snooker legend Jimmy White amongst others. Carl Savage was in action in the half, clocking a respectable 1:39, narrowly ahead of Lucy Marchi (1:40) who once again ran superbly well and only narrowly missed out on the ladies’ club record for the distance. Peter Mann, Fiona Riedy, Stephanie White and V60 10K club record holder Eric Fowler were also in action.