Week Ending - 2024/06/09

TWO CASTLES RUN SEES FUN IN THE SUN

Badgers were well represented at the ever-popular Two Castles 10K held between Kenilworth and Warwick at the weekend. Numbers stretched well into double figures and several athletes returned with personal best times. Seasoned campaigner Colin Lees was first back in 48:43 closely followed by his training partner Suzy Farrell in a quality 49:36. Grace Barsby made her distance debut in a brisk 54:45 while Hannah Coogan rolled back the years with her 57:23.  Kieren Coopey clocked the first PB of the morning in 58:15, a big improvement on his old best and the popular Clare Whetton ran superbly once again to break the hour mark with plenty of time to spare in 58:56. 

Eric and Eleanor Fowler were back up in the Lake District at the weekend taking on the Coniston 16K trail race, taking in some fabulous scenery and challenging elevation. Eric was slightly the quicker of the two in 15th place overall with an excellent time of 81:22, third in the V50 age category, but Eleanor (in 82:14) enjoyed greater glory as she won her age group (V40) and finished a superb 4th overall. 

There were course bests for Alice Belcher in 60:03, Anna Savin-Baden in 61:44, and Carl Ford (65:56). Rick Reilly earned himself a massive new PB getting round in 64:11, over five minutes faster than ever before over the distance. Kate Rathbone did similarly with an excellent performance of 70:41 as she continues to improve in 2024. 

David Grant put in a solid performance at the Coventry-based Sphinx 5 evening race, with a time of 38:09. The veteran ace bowled along nicely to finish first Badger back ahead of wife Yvonne who ran a very respectable 46:45. 

There was plenty of action at parkrun where Glyn Broadhurst (19:09 at Brunswick Park, Wednesbury) and Megan Griffiths (22:57 at Kingsbury) both emerged as first-place finishers, with Jane Barrett (3rd) and Jill Miller (7th) also reaching the giddy heights of the top ten at the water park. Chris Young made the top ten for the first time at Market Bosworth with an excellent run of 22:37. Mark Repton and Liz Peel both achieved top ten finishes at Tamworth Castle Grounds and last but not least at Walsall Arborectum, Ryan Preece recorded the fastest 5K of the morning with his swift 16:30 in third place, with his teammate and occasional mascot Jacko Ingespritzer, aka Dave Jackson, once again riding the curve of upwardness en route to a tenth place time of 18:32, a season’s best for the muscular man mountain.