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Race report: Steve Parker

Up at 5 30 usual pre marathon porridge medicine, as usual, ate until I felt sick. Off with other like minded individuals to the start, by chance, only about a mile from the B+B, out side the Rod Laver Arena on Batman Ave, of Australian Open tennis fame. https://www.stonemm.co.uk/2015/10/18/melbourne-marathon-18th-october-2015/ https://www.stonemm.co.uk/2015/10/18/melbourne-marathon-18th-october-2015/Took my cap off, as instructed, for the Ozzie National Anthem, commentator told everyone to “bugger work tomorrow, tell the boss you’ve done the M, and finished in the “G” “. Off at an early 7 00 start, thank god, as it got hot from 10 00, and plodded around, aiming for favoured negative split, started to feel real tired (sorry buggered) at about 32k and had to hang on, to the finish in the MCG home of the 1956 Olympics, although I don’t remember them!

Ran with Felicity for about 6k from Torpoint in Cornwall (out for a week just to do Marathon) moved on when she explained her husband was in the Marines and was aiming for 3 hours. Ran with Leanne (doing it for her 50th birthday, a local)  for about 25k, moved on when she suggested breakfast with her family, then with about 1.5k to go, an ex pat Kevin, (in his 30’s) came alongside and explained he had been following me all the way round, I suggested we finished together, he agreed and then sprinted (or what appeared to me like a sprint) around the inside of the MCG to the finish, I didn’t want Kev to beat me so it all became messy over the last 400 metres, I think we did finish together, possibly to ex english Kevs surprise.

Didn’t see any other bats so little else to report. Oh, finish time (on my watch) 3 28 07! Didn’t need the St Johns help so that’s a result, keeping off the trams. Usual diet Coke fuelled rehydration along with Pizza, possibly a beer or 2 later along with Pizza, possibly a beer or 2 later.

The Photo’s are from file, not from the race. However they are likely to be realistic of Sparker’s face at the sprint finish and his post race recovery.

Editor comment:   After reading Sparker’s comments on tiring at 32km, I thought I’d check what happened to the machine that is Sparker. According to the timing on the results website he was 19 seconds slower in the second 20k from the first 20k, and his sprint finish led to a fast final 2.2k, thus he was probably close to a negative split. As usual he passed runners the whole race, almost 400 in the second half! Well done Sparker, I wish I could do that in a bad race!

Race report – Margaret Shaw

When Richard mentioned this half marathon to me saying that it was pretty well all down hill I thought that has to be good. It was everything I enjoyed, off road but a good track,scenic and down hill! We entered very early as apparently it is very popular (I wonder why?) and limited to 400. This race is run on the Saturday and on the Sunday, so we opted for the Sunday.

The race runs from Parsley Hay Cycle Centre to Ashbourne down the old disused railway line, finishing at the Leisure Centre where there are changing and showering facilities. The route takes you from Parsley Hay(which is over 1000 ft) to Hurdlow, Hartington, Ruby Wood, Alsop-en-le-Dale, Tissington, Thorpe Station and Mapleton Lane. The Leisure Centre at Ashbourne is also the race headquarters. Buses take you from the Centre to the start at Parsley Hay.

The morning of the race arrives, the weather promises sunshine and temperatures good for running. We arrive at 8.00am and there were plenty of spaces for parking. We met with Julia Dando and some of our friends from Drayton so time soon passed and we were on the buses by 9.15 on our way to the start. We had a lovely scenic journey and were pleasantly surprised to see approximately 10 hot air balloons. At Parsley Hay there were plenty of toilets with a cafe and shop to buy hot drinks if you needed one. Julia was soon tucking into a hot chocolate (could this be the reason for her 10min PB!).

Whilst we were waiting I suddenly spotted Ann Griffiths her husband David and Bill Clarke. It was great to see them increasing our club numbers to six. As we waited we were warned to keep to the left and not wear headphones as we would be sharing the trail with cyclists and horses. As expected there were those who still wore headphones and a cyclist ran into one of them as they did not hear his warning bell. No one hurt but yet another instance in support of no headphones.

It was chilly at the start and therefore wearing a Tee Shirt or bin bag was recommended. Discarded Tee shirts were taken to the finish line for collection. We were also set off in  waves of approx 25 in order to prevent bottlenecks and to be helpful to others using the trail. This worked well.

As we set off the sun peeped through and we soon warmed up. Julia and I ran together for the first 8 miles keeping a good steady pace and it was great to have such good company. The scenery was breathtaking, changing from panoramic views to woodland and vice versa. The trail was excellent to run on, not too rocky, and yes it was definitely predominately down hill. It was a gradual downward gradient with plateaus. Do not think WOW, that must have been an easy run!! It was not! Picture yourself running at your quicker pace, nonstop for 13.1 miles. No nice hills to change pace. It is relentless. But yes PBs are on the cards. Your legs will also tell you they have been running downhill and quads will scream the next day.

Oh, one more thing, there was one short, steep hill, up to the finish! This is the result of a viaduct being removed when the railway closed down. This produced downward then upward slopes of 130ft with gradient 1:9 each.

A brilliant day. Richard took Male Vet 65 with a time of 1.48.06 and Julia Dando had a tremendous PB of 10mins. Would I do it again? Yes. https://www.stonemm.co.uk/2015/10/09/tissington-trail-half-marathon-sunday-4th-october-2015/ https://www.stonemm.co.uk/2015/10/09/tissington-trail-half-marathon-sunday-4th-october-2015/Richard & I have already entered next year Sunday 9th October and hope other bats will join us especially as we have found a good eating venue at Denstone Farm Shop/Cafe for lunch en route home. It has been given the thumbs up by our little group of runners on Sunday.

Chip Times
Richard Shaw 1.48.06
Margaret Shaw 2.06.04
Julia Dando 2.08.35
David Griffiths 2.17.39
Ann Griffiths 2.22.25
Bill Clark 2.22.25

Race Report – Mac McCoig

This first staging of the Moddershall 5 Mile road race took place on 27 September in perfect weather conditions. Organised by Mick Downes (and other members of SMM assisting) for Moddershall Cricket Club, the race was in aid of Breakthrough Breast Cancer in memory of Mandy Shenton, a former member of the cricket club.

The venue was the cricket club grounds which, perched on the top of a hill, overlooks Stone and provides stunning views across Staffordshire and to the far off ‘blue remembered hills’ of Shropshire. The cricket club had organised a fete and with ladies serving tea & cakes in the pavilion this was one of those perfect English sunny occasions we all remember from our childhood.

Anyone who knows where Moddershall Cricket Club is will also know that the advertised ‘undulating’ course description is a bare-faced lie. The precipitous banks surrounding Moddershall are worthy of a stiff fell race, as any local will tell you. However, Mick had arranged an excellent course with little country lanes, virtually traffic free, boasting trees, cows grazing, a picturesque pub with a duck pond and a lovely prospect of the Wrekin in the distance. This is what road running is all about and who gives a fig for the grim streets and grey tenements of city events?

97 brave souls set off at 11:00, cheered on by a small band of supporters who probably (having just driven up Hayes Bank) never expected to see them again, a scene reminiscent of the Accrington Pals marching off cheerily to war-time France. However, return they did! With the men’s race being led in by Craig Pilsbury in 29:59 (unattached – someone sign him up!), Steve Naylor of Michelin AC in second place in 30:56 and Paul Swan of Trentham RC third in 31:13. The ladies were led home by the aptly named Wendy Swift of Staffs Moorlands in 34:10 with Pippa Steele (unattached but soon to return to SMM I am told) second in 37:24 and our own Kirsty Stephenson third in 37:48.

Other prizes were taken by Bryn Holmes of Trentham RC (V40 32:45), Andy Lidstone Buxton & District AC (V50 34:45) and our evergreen Kevin Uzzell (V60 37:31). Ladies prize-winners were Gail Lowe of Newcastle AC (V40 44:14), Linda Ferneyhough (45:23) and our own Pam Davies (V60 42:03).

As for me, I puffed along at the back, trying to enjoy the beautiful weather and scenery and wondering why someone had moved Moddershall Oaks a half a mile further on from where I last saw it. However I, like several other SMM members who ran at Moddershall, had competed in the Winsford cross-country the day before and were entitled to feed a bit puffed. So that’s a big cheer for all those who ran on Saturday and a bigger cheer for Mick and the Cricket Club and all those SMM members who turned out to help make this a great little race. Let’s see it on the calendar again next year!

Race Report – Kim HumphrEys

Bats do Wroclaw

In the very early hours of 11^th September, the Bats – Jim, Tim, Tom, Ben, Roger, the Legend, Bernie, Sparker, Mick and Kim assembled outside the bat cave with 4 other good men and true – Rich, Phil, Chris and Lee and set off for what must be the most underwhelming airport in the civilised world, Nottingham East Midlands.

The main course – to help Jim out of the carefree life of liberty that has been his hallmark for the past 41 years and try and ease him into the control of the strong arm of the law in terms of his impending marriage to Lisa.

For dessert, a modest helping of the Wroclaw marathon.

The Airport – little to report except for a couple of drinks and the odd custard cream (Marks and Spencer’s version being obviously superior to the very poorly filled and tasting Morrison’s version) similarly, an uneventful flights and bus into Wroclaw. An early lunch of a few beers and a burger, followed by a few more beers.

Off to the hotel (after what seemed like a 5 mile walk – we did finally work out that those bus like vehicles with wires sticking out that stopped outside our hotel were – in fact – trams) and out again for a quiet beer, followed by several noisy ones.

For those unaccustomed to the usual pattern of the Bats’ trips away, the usual pattern is (1) a few beers; (2) a bit of culture – and yes that’s not just a yoghourt! and (3) run the marathon.

On this trip (2) was replaced by two activities – shooting and go-karting. On Saturday we all trouped off to a shooting range and fired a Glock pistol, a shotgun and an AK47. Safety was paramount and we were all advised where to stand whilst the shooting was in progress – although in Tim “target, what target?” Hulse’s case, the safest place would have been in front of the target. The best performance came from Chris “the legend and 007” Barlow.

Marathon day was soon upon us and Kim, having packed his wife’s running vest rather than his own decided to change shirts to avoid scaring the masses by having his belly sticking out and looking like Matt Lucas from Little Britain.

The day was extremely hot but all bats came in safely – although there is an ongoing stewards’ enquiry into rumours that Ben Gamble waited by the finish to avoid winning a large trophy and having to pay a £500 baggage supplement to Ryanair. The times were as follows:-

A well organised marathon – albeit the course itself missed out some of the better sights of the old town in Wroclaw.

The post marathon recovery was uneventful except for a couple of bats struggling in the heat. All agreed that the rehydration process was a serious one and needed to be implemented with vigour.

On Monday we went off for our second activity: go-karting and again a surprise winner emerged in Roger “out of my way” Taylor.  A final beer session followed the highlight of which was the Legend leading the beer hall in a chorus of “happy birthday” to help Tim celebrate his 47^th.

All in all – a great trip – it was a pleasure to celebrate with Jim and a huge vote of thanks goes to Tim and Tom for their organisation and calming influences……

Race Report – Richard Shaw

This is the third year the race has been held in and around the beautiful historic village of Kimbolton. The race starts and finishes in the grounds of Kimbolton Castle and this year attracted around 600 runners. The weather was too kind for us as average temperature during the race was around 22C.

The Castle is best known as the final home of King Henry Vlll’s first queen Catherine of Aragon. Originally a medieval castle but converted into a stately palace. It now houses Kimbolton School an independent day and boarding school educating approx 950 boys and girls.

The race is a one lap undulating course mainly on country lanes with two long hills and take in the counties of Cambridgeshire and Bedfordshire. The runners head out through the village of Kimbolton and pass through the villages of Tilbrook in Cambridgeshire, upper Dean, Lower Dean, Risley and Swinshead all in Bedfordshire before heading back to Kimbolton Castle. The first hill comes at 6 miles and the ” sting in the tail” is the long uphill climb comes at 11 miles where a large majority of the runners find it easier to walk than run – including myself. At least it gave me a good downhill run to 12 miles and the final mile is fairly flat finishing in the beautiful grounds of the Castle.

Whilst waiting for the race to start Andy Ellams from BRJ Run & Tri Club in Huntingdon (club local to Kimbolton) introduced himself and transpired that he lived in Stafford before moving to Huntingdon some 5 years ago and he ran our Flying Fox Marathon last year. We ran together for the latter part of the race and during the run I was overtaken by Richard Davies also of BRJ Run & Tri Club who mentioned that he also ran our Flying Fox Marathon last year and both runners enjoyed the Marathon but not the hills!!

The pre-race notes sent to each competitor stated that Bins are provided at each water station along the course for Water Bottles and Gels. Random Bottle and Gel dropping would result in disqualification. Further warnings were that anyone using the Castle grounds “relieving themselves” would also result in disqualification or worse as it is against the Law! (Toilet queues were very long) Also any runner crossing over the central road markings to the right hand side would be disqualified!

The race was organised by Nice Tri Events with chip timing and the chip was built into the race number. Each race number displayed the Christian name of the competitor. Every finisher received a Wicking Tee Shirt, attractive Medal, Banana and Water. Also at the finish they provided an Instant Result Service for each runner using a keypad to input the race number which produced a printout showing Provisional Results ie Gun Time, Chip Time, Race Position either Male of Female and position in Age Group.

This was our very first race in Cambridgeshire and overall the race was very well organised but due to the rural course there were few spectators en route, but in the grounds support was excellent as in addition to the main race there was a Multi-Terrain Children’s Fun Run.

My finishing Chip Time was 1:49:37 and 5/12 in 60+ Age Group as they did not have 65+ and Margie’s Chip Time was 2:12:55

Richard & Margaret Shaw