Club Participation in Races - Report of 8th September
In the Wolverhampton City Half Marathon, with a field of 1261 finishers Steph Lane, age 17, finished 1st Lady in a time of 1:23:01, over 10 minutes ahead of 2nd lady, who happened to be her mum, Vet 50 Ali Lane, in 1:32:12. The pair almost missed the start due to traffic problems and had sprinted from the car park, half a mile away, to just push through to somewhere near the line as the gun went off. On a new windy course through the park for the first kilometer, Ali could see Steph ease away well in the lead and found she was running at a faster pace than planned in 2nd. Expecting to be passed as the race progressed, Ali was amazed to maintain the 2nd spot to the end, 2 minutes in front of 3rd. The next edition of the family was Vet 60 Norm Lane, who had raced earlier in the week, so ran a conservative time of 1:44:03, followed closely by Jimmy Lunney in 1:44:39.
Marathon supremo Steve Edwards took the harder option, running the Marathon to bring his total number run so far up to 455. His vast experience showed, as he maintained even splits, going through half way in 1 hr. 33 mins and crossing the finish line in 3:06:34, giving him a finish position of 31 out of 293 finishers and 8th V45. The clear winner was Colin Gel from Sale Harriers who ran 2:40:01 with a 2 min 51sec advantage over 2nd placed Ian Mansell from Dudley in 2:42:51. The first Vet home was Phil Darbyshire from Wigan in 2:44:17, 4th place overall. Another interesting statistic, out of the first 50 finishers, 29 were Vet40 or over!
Having ran this 2 lap marathon course many times before, I knew there were a few undulations including a half mile drag at the 10 and 23 mile stages. Conditions were very good though, a light breeze, overcast and the threat of light showers, so Steve decided to set out at just over 7 minute mile pace. ’ This got him to halfway in bang on 1:33, an almost perfect even split, having been on Ali Lane's tale from the time she passed him right at the start. nbsp;He felt pretty good at this point despite a slight niggle in his groin, so kept the same pace going through out. Steve hit 20 miles in 2:22 and although he slowed a little on the half mile uphill drag at 23 miles, once back on the flat again, he had a bit left in the tank to run the remaining 2 miles pretty hard and therefore complete the last 10k in just over 44 minutes.
Having ran 3:10 here last year, this was 4 minutes quicker and a year older! It must be all that extra hard training on Tuesday and Thursday evenings trying to keep up with those other fast Bourton runners!!.
On the same day, many of the club members took part in the Beacon 10K Race in Gloucester, which is part of the Gloucestershire AAA Road Race Series, where valuable points were up for grabs.
Dennis Walmsley notched another race win to his belt, with a convincing lead from Lee Rankin of 23 seconds to cross the line in 34:27. Team mate, Alistair Lockey finished 3rd on this occasion in 34:59 and with a superb PB by Andy Chapple in 37:39 and a courageous appearance by Tony Goodwill in 40:06 they made up the First Team.
Lucy Walmsley is returning to form after her injury with an excellent 3rd place in 40:55, just ahead of Brittany Teague, 4th in 41:13. Brittany's parents, Neil and Pauline were next in, in 47:07 and 47:48.
Simon Rutherford had the run of his life, with a personal best of 48:01 and the call was close with Lynn Hudson storming ahead of Shirley Creed for 48:51 and 48:59. Caroline Ball and Liz Hulcup finished in 52:06 and 53:01 respectively.
The mid-week County Championship track meeting at the Prince of Wales would only have been fit for ducks, with lashing rain during the whole evening. Despite probably some of the worst conditions ever at a track meeting, Bourton turned out in force with teams in all ages.
In the 4 x 100m the under 13 girls, Alice Wynn, Jennie and Jessie Knowles and Natalie Lane, were a big hit, taking gold in 73.0 secs overall. The under 17 ladies, Beth Wynn, Brittany Teague, Steph Lane and Beth Pudifoot collected silver in 64.7. The Vet Ladies, Lynn Hudson, Carol Cowley, Shirley Creed and Ali Lane, in perhaps not their best distance, 77.7 secs and gold.
The men had some lightning sprints, with Luke Gray dipping over the line to gain joint 3rd overall in the race and gold for the U17s in 55.5 together with Lee Knowles, Lewis Gray and Tom Jess. The MV40 team of John Gibson, Eddie Rozier, Rob Edwards and Ian MacDougall took gold in 67.6 and the Vet 60 team of Norm Lane, Graham Farrer, Phillip Howells and Mike Ward again took gold.
The 4 x 400m results were much the same as the 100m, except in the U17 ladies Beth Pudifoot gave a phenomenal effort on the last leg to win gold by .6 of a second from Gloucester.
Ian MacDougall led from the start in the 10K, lapping most people for a time of 35 mins 17.5 secs. Unfortunately the majority of the times got washed away with the rain and could not be recorded, but other Bourton finishers in order were Tony Goodwill, Rob Edwards, Norm Lane, Rob Humphris, Bert Jess and Gill Carrick.
Eddie Rozier had a stormer in the mile, recording 6:43.2.
Further afield Jimmy Lunney and Sarah Clemo took in a race whilst on holiday in Ireland, clocking 37:29 and 40:19 respectively.
Report Highlights
The Lane girls finish 1st & 2nd at Wolverhamton Half.
Marathon man Steve Edwards achives his 455th at Wolverhampton, in 3:06.
Dennis Walmsley wins the Beacon 10k by 23 seconds.
Bourton 'grabs gold' at the County Track Relay & 10k Champs. Ian MacDougall wins the 10k.
Jimmy Lunney and Sarah Clemo race in Ireland while on holiday.
Other reports may be found on our recent race reports page.