Week Ending - 2021/07/25

LOCAL CLUBS COMBINE FOR SOUTHERN SUCCESS

Stars of Badgers and Tamworth AC joined forces at the weekend to take on the southern edition of the hugely popular Endure 24 endurance relay competition. Five of the side won the northern event near Leeds back in 2019 and reconvened with a few personnel changes to tackle the 24-hour race now located near Henley-on-Thames in Berkshire for the first time. Runners had to take it in turns to complete 5-mile laps, all set within Covid secure guidelines with the team recording the most laps at noon the following day being declared the winners.

They suffered a hammer blow on the morning of the event as flying Badger Matt Scarsbrook withdrew from the team, but former Badgers men’s captain Adrian Payne stepped up to fill the place and put in a heroic performance, his first four laps were all within nine seconds of one another, a remarkable feat of consistency.

It was in-form Tamworth athlete Ash Baldwin who kicked things off for the team, collectively monikered The Village People, and recorded the fastest lap of the competition for his team with a rapid 28:52. The 2021 Gate Gallop winner led from the front for his side, but the competition was stiff with some high-quality athletes on show from around the UK. Team captain Damo Taylor (Tamworth) was next out, the “Big Dog” thrives on this type of competition and was in his element here putting in solid shift after solid shift, with minimal drop off in performance. His huge appetite for work was a major asset in the team’s steady rise up the leader board during the first daylight period. Taylor’s race pedigree was once again on show, a previous winner of the Endure solo event in 2016, covering 135 miles, he followed it up with second place the year after. Throw in wins in the Coventry Way Ultra and the Hurley fun run in the meantime and it’s easy to see why he is so respected by his team-mates.

Badgers key-man Glyn Broadhurst has seen his running improve significantly in the last twelve months and he clocked six high quality laps for the team, the most consistent performer of all on the weekend. Tamworth veteran Gordy Smith may have had more clubs than the golf shop at The Belfry but at 50 years of age, he was drafted in to bring some maturity to the side, an experiment that quickly backfired as before the race had even started, he violated the team’s lead-out man unexpectedly with a massage gun while wearing a large rubber horse mask. Ultimately, his proven athletic ability shone through in spades, as he too produced six sparkling laps at an average of 30 minutes, phenomenal running.

Dave McGowan was one of the changes to the side that triumphed in Leeds, and he was another who impressed enormously with six laps (30 miles) of outstanding quality, including a flying first lap that was only 14 seconds shy of Baldwin’s overall best. The Baddesley man has been constantly improving across all formats since joining Badgers a few years ago and this was yet another example of that. His team-mate Dave Hill performed admirably off minimal training. The Polesworth man, was enjoying some downtime in the aftermath of his superb 2:43 marathon in late Spring and stepped in late on to fill a vacant place in the team and did not let the side down with five good laps on a course laden with plenty of twists and turns. Badger Chris Horton made up the octet, having made a huge effort to regain some fitness after the best part of six months out with a knee problem. When he completed his sixth and final lap, it left enough time for Payne to get back out onto the course and with it, equal the feat of 47 laps (235 miles) which was the event record they set in Leeds two years prior. Despite calf trouble, Payne got back safely to elevate his team’s status furthermore as they beat their previous overall time for an Endure event on what was generally recognised to be a slower course than it’s northern counterpart.

Sadly, the event record was already lost as the winning team, based locally in Reading, bettered it by a single lap, earning them a thoroughly deserved victory on the weekend and meaning the lads had to settle for second, a long way clear of the third placed team.

Despite their best ever performance at one of these events, the team were rightly proud of their silver medal performance and had no regrets or qualms about where they finished or how they ran, being beaten by a better team who ran faster. Running at virtually 10mph continuously for 24 hours is no mean feat.

Also at the event were another seven Badgers in the mixed team competition. They selflessly sacrificed their own ambitions by allowing Payne to swap teams at the last minute and provided great humour and support along the way. There was some hugely impressive running going on too, in more challenging circumstances also. With a person down, and key-man Ryan Moore having to depart early, it piled pressure on the remaining runners to run more laps and with shorter rest breaks. Ironman Moore somehow managed to shoehorn four brisk laps into a very short period to ease the remaining burden a little. Jimmy Dewis is not one to shirk a challenge and he produced five laps of real determination and quality with wife Cheryl showing every ounce of class as she ran six consistently good times, clearly having inherited some of her father Ted’s excellent distance running genetics and know how. Her will to succeed was unparalleled and helped inspire her colleagues on the day. Monika Lampart, back after a long lay off ran five good laps, skipper Nicki Bowman too put a shift in with five laps of her own and Ann-Marie Currier managed four laps when only a few months ago, nobody would have believed this would be even close to the case.

Spare a thought too to her devoted husband and Badgers men’s captain Simon, who only went down to support his wife and ended up filling a place after Payne’s transfer and Ryan Preece’s forced late withdrawal left the team desperately short. Having not run since April, he still found the resolve to throw four laps together, albeit in deteriorating quality as the race wore on, a proper team man and hero to those in both camps. The side finished a hugely creditable 18^th overall out of a whopping 106 teams.

Endure 24 was not the only race of it’s kind over the weekend as at Catton Park near Tamworth, the annual Conti Thunder Run 24-hour race was back after a year’s hiatus. Stars of the show were undoubtedly female pairs combination Esther Holyoak and Serena Baker. The durable duo planned to run 60K apiece and enjoy an early finish. What neither of them expected was that this performance would land them on the podium as they scooped third place in the field with their epic efforts.

The men’s team of five made up of Cameron Barnes, Dave Jenkinson, Colin Lees, Ian Orton and Ashley Taylor all knuckled down to record five lots of 10K laps each, placing their team 8^th in their category, a mighty fine collective achievement, especially with more limited rest breaks. In the mixed team competition, David Grant led the way with five laps of his teams 22 (137 miles), with help from Carl Savage, Harvey Allen, Yvonne Faulkner, Helena Rean, Richard Chester and Suzy Farrell.

Emma Masser bore the brunt of her team’s workload with 50K of her own, assisted by Carl Holyoak, Laura Bingham, Gavin Crockwell, Charlotte Oliver and Paul Cooper, for a combined total of 119 miles. Rob Crow, Jo Davies and Jo Hardy were joined by ex-Badger Keir Hardy in their team while four Badgers ran solo efforts, Lee Talbot and Karen Thompson both managing an impressive 100K each and Eamon Thawley trucking round alongside Clare Whetton for eight and seven laps respectively.

Parkrun made a long-awaited return at the weekend with dozens of Badgers turning out for the new beginning. Kingsbury Water Park saw the biggest turnout with Sam Starkey first back in 5^th place with his run of 19:20 and Mark Repton also making the top ten with a tempo run of 20:15 the day before his half marathon race at the Bedford Running Grand Prix in which he returned home in a top-quality time of 81:49. Rachael Shelton also managed to finish 6^th lady at Kingsbury with her spritely 25:41.