Week Ending - 2024/12/29

BADGERS ROUND OFF 2024 IN STYLE

As the year drew to a close, Badgers set off once again for a busy weekend of parkrunning, with dozens turning out on December 28th as well as a host of others enjoying the frivolities of the Christmas morning runs where available. At Kingsbury Water Park, Chris Horton and Rachel Crump made up a rare club double with each Badger finishing first in their own gender category. Horton secured his 34th win at the venue in a time of 18:47, struggling at times to stay on his feet given the extremely wet and muddy conditions. Crump was once more outstanding, gliding her way around in 23:12, only a minute outside of her very best, in conditions far from conducive to fast times. Jane Barrett took a fine fourth and Nivette Chester ninth as Badgers packed the top ten. In addition, Chris Young and new recruit Daniel Yoxall both ran well.  

Over at Bedworth, Victoria Jones took third in testing conditions, her time 26:02. Mark Cox also managed third at the scenic Las Debinski circuit in Poznan, Poland. Alice Belcher notched up her 50th parkrun, at Sence Valley and Susie Stringer celebrated her 40th birthday with a strong run at Brueton Park. Beth Woodward made the top ten at Tamworth Castle while at Holbrooks, David Craig finished 8th male behind MARM in 23:50 with Gail Gunn also shooting her way into the top ten. 

Christmas Day saw some action too, the highlights including Lucy Marchi’s third-place run of 22:29, a personal best as well as Juliette Trollope’s PB also at Tamworth (33:09), where there were course bests for Maggi Savin-Baden and Krystal Knight. Rachael Browne and the pacy Megan Church also made their way into the top ten with speedy runs, the latter clocking up yet another PB in 2024, this time in 25:21, that yearned for sub-25 now tantalizingly in sight.

Away from parkrun, Danny Warren made his annual pilgrimage to the Wheaton Aston 10K making the top 20 in 37:01. A handful of Badgers ran at the Huncote Hash cross-country event on the Sunday as well.