Warm weekends and evening trails in the sunshine seem a distance memory this weekend as Storm Ashley blew through. Wet, soggy and challenging – were the words most used on Strava! So bad was the predicted weather on Sunday, that the Great South Run even took the rare decision to Cancel the event!
Despite this: Simon Morris and Stephen Newing grabbed PB’s at the Abingdon Marathon
Celebrating its 40th edition, the Abingdon Marathon Marathon, near Oxford is advertised as flat and fast, although not necessarily this Sunday when it was blowing a gale!
Celebrating PBs at Abingdon
The challenging conditions did not stop our two warriors Stephen Newing and Simon Morris from grabbing new PB’s, finishing in 3:16:52 and 3:18:52 respectively.
Simon said afterwards “it more or less went to plan. Go hard at the first 20 and hang on… Wet and windy made it hard work”. Well done guys it can’t have been easy !! Another shiny medal for the collection.
Maybe to avoid the rain…..Jono Marvel took on the Stone Steps 27km trail event in Cincinnati.
The Stone Steps 27K, held in Mt. Airy Forest in Cincinnati, is billed as a very technical trail run. Basically hilly, with roots and rocks and, of course, stone steps! The stone steps section is said to be brutal, about half a mile of ungodly steep incline leading to the steps and then it’s about a quarter of a mile almost straight up the steps. You have to be brave take that on!
Well Done then to Jono!!!!! he took on the challenge and finished in 3h 14m with an elevation gain of 919m!!! He reported it as a “Great course. Fantastic conditions, “like Wendover Woods on steroids! Soo many tree roots.”
Soggy, boggy parkruns!!!
Despite the heavy rain we had 39 Harriers out on Saturday morning running parkruns, across 11 locations, which became largely mud runs. Which was the most difficult though?
Well apparently there are 760 active park runs listed in the UK, and they are ranked from “1” for the fastest (Pegwell Bay) to “760” for the slowest (Great Yarmouth Beach). So looking at where our runners went this Saturday…..Nick Joseph would have had the toughest run at Wendover Woods parkrun and Martha woollett the easiest at Hove ? Well done Nick for tackling that one on a day with such challenging conditions.
The monthly “Club Parkrun tour” event was at the Millennium Country parkrun. 11 of our runners took the trip there ,where I am told it was not just wet, but very very very wet, too wet even for a team photo – shock!
The trip was worth it though as Russell Jones and Gareth Tucker finished 1st and 2nd, both coming in just under 20 mins, and Guy Woollett took 6th pace. Extra shout out to Vince Ellerby, finishing in 9th place with a time of 21Mins 40 and posting the highest % age grade score of the day at 74%!! It was a birthday Parkrun for Kim Morgan running with Emma reed. A belated Happy Birthday Kim!
Closer to home
We had 8 runners at the Rickmansworth parkrun where Joanna Kidd’s ran her 100th parkrun at Rickmansworth running with Helen Cook .Congratulations Joanna!! Congratulations too, to Lewis Ellerby on his 6th place finish and Amanda Barker who was our fastest lady anywhere today at 25mins 14.
Well done too to Michael Linden who finished 6th at Gadebridge Parkrun, one of 10 GVH runners “enjoying” the mud feast and only very slightly an easier run that Wendover Woods.
Maybe seeking a break from the rain? Susie Ivin, Paula Cook and Helen Heathcote who took on the sunny looking Street Parkrun in Somerset
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Parkrun Pacer
The final parkrun shout out goes to Kitty Cole who was a “29 min official Pacer ” at Gloucester North parkrun this weekend – bringing her group home in 28min :50secs. Well done Kitty . Infact Kitty puts many of us , including myself, to shame as she has completed not just 121 parkruns but 27 parkrun volunteering stints . Well done again Kitty – we are all grateful for Parkruns volunteers
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And finally its the “Not the Great South Run!”
Well done to Jen Brown and Chrissy Mooney who once the GSR had made the announcement to cancel … went for a 10 mile run anyway. Loving the spirit ladies
