Badgers out in force at Cathedral to Castle race with Colin Lees
DOZENS of Badgers made the journey to Lichfield on a stormy Sunday morning to take part in the popular Cathedral to Castle 10 mile point to point race, beginning at Lichfield Cathedral and ending at Tamworth Castle.
Suzy Farrell was the fastest lady Badger of the day finishing in a superb 80:10 which was good enough to earn her the prize of second V40 female of the entire race, a terrific effort. Fastest overall was her training partner Colin Lees, the V55 star getting home in 79:52.
West Brom fans had a good day with Paul Grubb running 85:10 and Lee Millership clocking a quality 92:08 plus Terry Argyle weighing in with a determined 1:54:31. Badgers had two pacy new mums returning to action as Charlene McGowan put in a superb run of 88:24, her first race in five years, and Katy Clemons followed suit in 96:13 after a three year hiatus. Grace Barsby managed the longest length run of her fledgling career with a quality 90:53 and Neil Thorne ran well to break 90 minutes in 88:34.
Karen Draper and Clare Whetton ran in tandem, crossing the line in 1:54:28, six seconds ahead of Sarah Reynolds. Ross Kilburn ran 1:42:48 and there were good times for Jill Miller (1:42:24), Kieran Coopey (1:43:55) and Londonbound Krystal Knight (1:43:11).
New signing Victoria Jones continues to impress, her 94:08 being one of the quickest of the day. Janet Crumpton managed her longest run in some time with her time of 1:51:15 and Paul Cooper ran 1:49:33. Rick Reilly clocked a fine 1:55:13 alongside Laura Robinson and Matt Smith performed brilliantly the day after running a parkrun PB at Tamworth, by finishing in 1:43:28.
V60 ace Paul Restall ran an excellent 95:35, two weeks away from his return to the London marathon, some forty years after his debut there. Carl Ford (1:51:17), Jo Hardy (99:04), Eamon Thawley (1:48:21) and Vicky Brunsdon (1:58:51) all went well too.
At the five mile Run in the Forest event at Conkers, Chris Upton ran 40:56 in his return to Badger colours in 2024. Steph White made full use of the array of puddles on course as she splashed her way round in good time.
Matt Scarsbrook was in action too, at the Leamington 10K, in the colours of Birchfield Harriers and ran a magnificent race to win outright in a mind-blowingly quick time of 31:53, almost a minute inside Dave Hill’s outstanding club record for the distance of 32:45.
Parkrun saw a number of good performances on Saturday morning, perhaps none more so than the run of Eleanor Fowler’s which landed her the V40 club record. Esther Holyoak had held that particular gong since 2015 but the former Nuneaton Harrier took four seconds off it at Tamworth Castle Grounds with a time of 21:15. Beth Woodward (5th) and Megan Griffiths (8th) also made the top ten. For the men, Danny Warren managed a good 2nd, the day before becoming a dad for the second time. In-form Chris Tweed ran a course best 18:51 in 3rd with birthday boy Glyn Broadhurst (5th)