Landmark Forrest marks 100th run five years after cardiac arrest
AFTER a quiet racing week over the Easter bank holiday, Almost Athletes emerged to take on all distances from parkrun to spring marathons.
The ‘feel good’ story of the week was that of club stalwart Forrest Wheeler, who chalked up his 100th parkrun at Pittville almost five years to the day since suffering a cardiac arrest during his first-ever parkrun.
On an emotional morning in the park, Forrest completed alongside Mike Jarvis, who was first on the scene that day and was himself celebrating his 250th parkrun.
Apart from Forrest, the best part of 70 Almosts participated in parkruns last weekend.
There were personal bests for Mark James at Kingsway, Sarah Wallbridge and Megan Davis at Tewkesbury and Alice Tredgett, who was also first lady across the line at Gloucester City.
Hester Coggin enjoyed a course personal best at Tewkesbury as did Deb Cartlidge at Gloucester City.
Neil Tring was first in category at Eastville parkrun and, continuing his comeback from injury, Rich Smith completed his 60th different parkrun at Severn Bridge, recording his best time of the year to date and David Chittock notched up his 150th parkrun at Gloucester City.
Almost a dozen Almosts took on the LDWA Bath Beat Challenge event, a circular route from the edge of Bath which wends its way through the Somerset and Wiltshire countryside.
Conquering the 26.5-mile marathon distance were Mariel Chretien, Glenda Gill, Bob Spawton and Gary Whiting.
Taking on the shorter but still challenging 12.5-mile option were Lesley Cottle, Karla Cleverley, Ceinwen Davies, Charlotte Jamieson, Rachael Nolan, Ian and Sally Mckinlay.
Taking on mass participation events were Tony Heap, who recorded 2:02:31 at the ABP Southampton half marathon and Neil Tring (50:55) and Lorraine Taylor (57:35) at the Corsham St George’s 10k, which saw just shy of 1,000 finishers.
Jack Helliar stopped the clock at 1:04:25 at the Run Thorpe Park 10k.
At the other end of the scale, Robert Foord and Desiree Beer tackled the Shepperdine marathon, which saw just 49 finishers complete the five-lap course and earn an eye-catching medal for their efforts.
Robert recorded 3:56:28 in his first marathon and Desiree’s 4:26:28 was good enough for first in category and a strong good for age qualifying time.
Further north a trio of Almosts took on the well-established Shakespeare half and full marathon in Stratford upon Avon.
Issy Ravenhill was the club’s sole representative in the half marathon, recording a strong 1:43:56.
In the marathon Cos Pearson recorded 4:49:24 and Allan Green crossed the line in 4:54:48.