It’s a weekend of three halves!
With Spring marathon training in full swing, this weekend is a popular one for a half-marathon race tester. AVRs competed over the 13.1-mile distance in events in Bath, Fleet and Weymouth.
In Bath the race attracted a top-class field as it was a qualifier for the British team at the World Road Racing Championships taking place in September. It was won by former AVR, Jake Smith in a brilliant 1:02.20 meaning he is guaranteed a spot in the team if he can shave 20 seconds off that time at another half-marathon before the selection in mid-May. After two years of battling injury and RED-S it is fantastic to see Jake again competing at the very top.
Also back from injury, Duncan Staddon had a fine race finishing in 146th place in 1:18.31 and an impressive third M45. Heather Simmons finished in 2:13.51. More than 11000 completed the race in the beautiful regency city.
The Fleet half marathon also saw a competitive field with England Masters selection up for grabs. Debbie Whiston, using the race as part of her training preparations for London, finished in 1:26.44, 33rd female and ninth F45.
Meanwhile just down the road in Dorset, Diana Burn, also in London marathon training, used the Weymouth half-marathon as a slow training run finishing in 2:31 and second F70.
Nantwich 10k
Ron and Fiona Seward travelled up to Cheshire to run the Nantwich 10k, a fast and flat race on closed country lanes in the picturesque Cheshire countryside. It was a very cold, but sunny morning for the nearly 1750 runners. Fiona completed the course in 59:39 to be the first F70 in 1235th place while Ron finished in an excellent 46:27 for 338th and second M70 from an amazing 13 in that age bracket.
Seaton parkrun and beyond
It was a cold, sunny morning for Seaton parkrun with our friends at Honiton RC providing the majority of the volunteers as part of a “takeover” day. AVR’s Karen Eyre was first female and first on age-grade in 21:19 and 82.7%. First finisher was Joel Seward in 18:01 with Tony Smith, Seaton parkrun’s co-Event Director finishing in an excellent sub-20, 19:57 and third on age-grade 77.7%. As well as Tony there were PBs for Ann-Louise Childe in 28:18 and James Childe in 28:55.
Away from Seaton, Carol Austin completed Donaupark parkrun in Vienna, her 70th different venue and tenth different country. Closer to home Tom Parsons, Gill Day, Rachel Hiscock, Denise Burges and Shirley Salter took part in Greendale Farm Shop parkrun, mercifully dry for a change. Elsewhere, Pam Goddard ran Woodley parkrun in Reading; Shaun Vinnicombe completed Hove Promenade; Paul Johns ran Shepton Mallet parkrun; Mark Spraggs enjoyed Lymington Woodside and Tim and Amie Sibley took part in Porthcawl parkrun.
And finally
Following her debut for the senior GB team at the European Athletics Indoor Championships, Innes Fitzgerald has been selected for the World Athletics Championships in Nanjing which take place next weekend.
