Well done to James Abrams on a PB at Leamington parkrun and a 3rd place category finish at the Stort 10. James sent in the following report:
Ran PB Saturday 21min 08sec at Leamington parkrun then travelled to bishop stortford ahead of Sunday’s stort10 mile trail run through the lovely national trust Hatfield forest.warm and sunny and very hard work mentally and physically!
Mitch has provided the following dramatisation:
One of the hardest half marathons Jackie and I have ever done, but also one of the most scenic. Take a look at the course profile and you will see why:
https://sites.google.com/site/ashbournerunningclub/ashbournehalfmarathon/HalfMarathonLogo-1200w.gif
Overall a very well organised event in the Derbyshire Dales, in good running conditions, with a mug and a medal to show for our effort; all professionally hosted by our ‘sister’ club Ashbourne Running Club, take a look at their kit!
http://www.ashbournerunningclub.org.uk/club-kit
Here’s what the Sphinx runners had to say about the race:
Dave West: the ‘Nike’ compression socks (in club colours) that Mitch sold me were fantastic, and ensured excellent blood flow to the calves.
Kevin Dick: those ‘Nike’ compression socks (in club colours) that Mitch sold me are the best piece of running kit I’ve ever bought and an absolute bargain at just £15 a pair!
Laura Duggins: wish I’d bought a pair of those ‘Nike’ compression socks (in club colours) off Mitch, then I might just have overtaken Dave on the run-in L
Jackie Timms: it’s a shame that the only two pairs of those ‘Nike’ compression socks (in club colours) that Mitch has left are in size 10 to 11.5, but I’m sure someone will snap them up at the bargain price of just £15 a pair (r.r.p. £25)
Final mention and congratulations to Laura Duggins who, despite the lack of ‘Sphinx’ compression socks, finished 4th overall in the Senior Female Category in an excellent time of 1:48:19.
Paul Slatford, Lisa Abbott and Imran Ali competed in the newest WRRL race, a 5km course around Leamington that finished with a lap of the running track that produced some excellent finishing straight gurning faces (check out the photos below). Pre-race reports of a flat and fast course may have been exaggerated.
Mitch has sent a report from Brueton, and there were first-time appearances aplenty elsewhere.
Over to Mitch:
With the Memorial Park out of action, for our Saturday morning Park Run ‘fix’ Will Robertson, Andy Mc and I made the short trip to Solihull for the Brueton Park Run. On arrival we discovered that the start had been moved to near the tennis courts, which meant that the first kilometre was a slight downhill to start with (as the courts were on your immediate left) and then a right turn onto a long flat section. Running on the right of the path, rather than the customary left at Brueton, we went anticlockwise round the copse of trees, then back along the usual route before turning right at the tennis courts and running anticlockwise round them, before repeating the exercise for the second lap. A course debut for Will and a very creditable time despite the jet lag, but pride of place goes to Macca, who, once again wearing his new ‘Sphinx’ coloured trainers, achieved a second PB in 6 days. He followed up his 10K PB at Prestwold last Sunday with not only a course PB, but an all-time 5K PB of 20:11 and a top 30 finish (out of 443 runners). So, just 2 seconds a kilometre short of that elusive 20 minute barrier and then you can enjoy a long and happy retirement mate (bit like Wayne!).
Stop Press: Final mention and congratulations to Vicky Hand who also did ‘the double’ of a course PB and an all-time 5K record time of 28:57.
Sphinx sent forth two teams of 3 to Northbrook’s Good, Bad and Ugly relays. Which of each team was good, bad or ugly is debatable as both teams finished in the top 5.
Six Sphinx runners completed the last race of the EMGP series: the Milton Keynes 10k.
Congratulations to James Abrams on a new PB. James reported:
…ran a new PB in the Swansea half 1hr 33min 2.excellent conditions and nice and flat along the mumbles.voted 2nd best half marathon to do
Garry has sent the following report of the North Devon marathon, where he finished 19th overall and 1st in his category! Top running, Garry.
First time trying the full marathon after a couple of runs out doing the half marathon. This event is a figure of 8 with the race start/finish on the green at Woolacombe right next to the beach. A testing course featuring 3435ft of ascent over what I ve recorded as 25.77 miles but being a fell runners association event they’re not the sort to fret over a few hundred yards (nope,nor me)! Luckily the weather was overcast and damp making for ideal conditions for running/grovelling!!
Overall 19th – 1st in age cat’ – 3:48:35
Lisa has sent the following report:
Another Sunday another race, this time it was 10 miles for part of the ‘Great Run Festival’ around Donnington Park. With a few aches and pains from the previous
days club outing to ‘Go Ape’ we were unsure how we would do. This run had an elite feel as it was started by the legendary Gemma Steel and won by soon to be Olympian Sonia Samuels. 3 Sphinx’s set off after a last minute swerve by Kevin Dick who after yet another night on the sauce was unable to even get his shorts never mind function at normal capacity. The show must go on though. Expectations of the course were that it was fairly flat but just under a mile in there was quite a hill which we had to do 4 times. The highlight would have to be the run through shower as the sun came and temperatures were on the rise. Spectators were aplenty in the stands and the atmosphere was fantastic. Big thumbs up to Mama and Papa Hand for being part of our support crew. Laps 3 and 4 were a bit tedious but on the plus side it allowed us to run back on each other and spur each other on. As I made my way for my final lap the lead bike was there moving us out the way paving the way for Sonia’s amazingly strong finish. After the race we re-grouped and it was picnic/prosecco time. We had the best afternoon doing nothing as the sun shone down on us and even have sunburn to mark the occasion as well as an fab goody bag, t-shirt and medal. A massive thanks to Allen and his chins for driving us! This was ‘funning’ with a difference. I got home and looked at results to find somehow I had managed 7th female.*Insert joke here*. No, just NO!!!
Mitch has sent the following account:
So, the Prestwold 10K, organised by Barrow Runners – some race this was! As you can see from the picture – a free bottle of beer to all runners, a plentiful goody bag and, unusually, a can of de-icer in ‘Sphinx’ colours. And, well, the raffle prizes…. they were just something else! So, after a very, quick discussion, Andy Mc and I took the extremely brave decision to change our footwear and actually run in the brand new trainers that we had acquired no more than 5 minutes previously! We both stood nervously on the start line, sporting our untried running shoes (remarkably in our own club colours), before setting off round the Prestwold race track/airfield, where we did a flat, fast 4k. Then we branched left onto a gravel track for a kilometre, before turning out into the Leicestershire countryside to encounter a series of gently undulating country lanes. With a quick downhill from 8K to 9K, we finished back at the entrance to the airfield once more. Perfect weather conditions and the new ‘Sphinx’ running shoes enabled Andy to knock almost a minute off his 10K PB, whereas I trailed in some 5 minutes behind L Disappointingly no medal or T-shirt (I gest), but free beer (and brand new trainers) at just £10 per entry more than made up for that J
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