Following on from the Mid May update a few performance have gone under the radar “Admin” apologies if your race gets missed but feel free to blog here directly yourselves!
On top of the previous post “Mid May” and in advance of the forth coming bank holiday weekend there have been several key performances from across the WBH community.
Missed off the last update we have Paul Jakeways (Picture below) – the distant but ever present Harrier ran a 3:42 marathon in the heat on the 14th May at the Shakespeare Marathon. Paul stated it was “Bloody hard work in the heat, a 2 lap course made for a much harder 2nd lap as the sun was unrelenting and the support from the 1st lap dwindled away…”. From us all at WBH well done Paul!
The day before Paul’s battle with the heat Dan Floyd Completed the Bromsgrove Bloodwise 10k where all money goes towards helping fund life saving research into blood cancer. At the same time we had a few more doing their bit for charity, this time in the form of Race for Life. This popular event was run by Elaine and Tara Donnelly on a glorious Saturday.
Veteran runners John Buckby (Left) and Andrew White were in action in the midweek sexarathon series (don’t get excited its 6 mid-week races). Andy ran 25:41 and John 30:26 at the Phoenix Flyer 5k on Wednesday 16th May; no doubt well placed within their categories which the provisional results are not currently showing.
over the same distance Gary Clifton was also well placed in his age category whilst continuing his ParkRun tour by finishing 2nd V50 at Kingsbury Waterpark in 21:47 (43rd overall) on the 19th May – continuing his steady improvements over the 5k distance on the tight course in Sutton.
Whilst Gary “Top” Clifton was ripping up the trails at Kingsbury other Gary’s were also in action – sticking with the Parkrun theme Garry Howell had a sterling performance at the increasingly popular Walsall Parkrun with a 20:41 leaving Garry asking if he will smash that PB soon; everyone is certain it is only a matter of time – keep digging away Mr H!
The final Gary (Smith) we will mention now and come back… starting in the early hours of Saturday 16th May the mad northerner began his epic Chester 100mile race, having started the weekends racing off his story will finish this article.
Fast forward 24 hours and whilst Mr Smith was still out there were two other Harriers about to race. Russell Collins (left) at the Cobra Classic and Dave Long (right) at the Hillwest race, both 10k events with a few hills thrown in for good measure. Collins race 43:43 just missing out on a top 10 finish with 13th place but a pleasing performance none the less. Meanwhile Dave who is currently responsible for the clubs training schedule was beaten in to second place by a former club mate from Royal Sutton AC at the Hillwest 10k in Sutton Park with a time of 38:42.
Despite some great performances over the traditional distances of 5k and 10k performance of the month so far has to go to Gary Smith who in under 29 hours completed the Chester 100mile race finishing in 13th position on his debuted. The nature of the event resulted in Gary actually covering just over a 105 miles in that time frame. Some nice Pictures Gary!! a fantastic achievement – the nutter is actually planning his next one already!
West Bromwich Harriers 