AVRs contribute to an England victory
Carol Austin and Angela Kerr travelled to Chester for the half-marathon where they represented England Masters F60 and F65 respectively. Representation follows a selection process involving achieving a qualification standard and position on a nominated race during the previous 12 months.
The course started at Chester racecourse before a short tour around the beautiful city centre then out into the Cheshire countryside before returning to finish with a steep hill up to the cathedral. In her first England appearance and in perfect conditions, Carol finished in 1:49.08, 11th F60 out of 42, 994th so within the first quartile of the 4000+ finishers.
Angela, making her third England Masters appearance, finished in 2:03.13, 16th F65 from 24. Overall England took the victory over Wales Masters.
AVRs excel in Exeter
On a hot and sunny morning conditions were excellent for the big contingent of AVRs at the Great West Half-Marathon held in our closest city. Laura Kerr was first female AVR home in a huge PB 1.44.34 knocking a massive seven minutes off last year’s time. Matt Frost was first male AVR in 1:23.41, 31st out of more than 1700 finishers improving on last year’s time. Katharine Moran was delighted with her PB of 2:01.33. Haydn Boehm finished in 1:35.27, 18th M45 with Jason Potter in 1:39.21. Wayne Tooze in 1:46.13 and Kathryn Thompson in 2:32.37 both secured PBs for the Great West. Mark Spraggs continued his current fine form finishing in 1:46.31; Cory Schultze came in in 1:53.11; Lindsey and Simon Freathy ran together coming in 1:57.26 with Jules Conway finishing in 2:04.31. Lucyann Ashdown ran for Hospicecare completing the race in 2:06.31 and raising money for a great cause.
Full results are here:
Binfield 10k
Cliff Marriott headed to old haunts and despite a night of curry and karaoke he completed the Binfield 10k in Berkshire in 54.05. It was surprisingly undulating, very warm and a well-supported race.
Loughborough International for Innes
Innes Fitzgerald made her British U20 track debut on Sunday at the Loughborough International where she took third place in the 3000m with a time of 9:09.45 competing against seniors from England, Scotland and the rest of the world.
parkrun PBs
At Saturday’s Seaton parkrun third place was secured by Ritchie Durrant in 17:01 and first woman finisher was Deborah Whiston in 20:32. Axe Valley Runners managed an impressive four PBs – Luke Reed 17:31, Max Richardson 19:24, Jeremey Norcombe 23:17, and Zoe Trewick 29:14. The third-place age grade of 79.49% was achieved by Ron Seward in 22:45. There were 222 finishers. Massive congratulations to core team member, David Sadler who reached 200 appearances at Seaton (including volunteering and running).
Tony Smith and Sam Miller travelled to Jersey Farm parkrun in St Alban’s to nab their “J” for the parkrun challenge while Bec and Simon Davey took part in just the third Thames Path parkrun in Woolwich, a lovely riverside run with an interesting ‘curly-wurly’ finish. Carolyn Nation was in Wales and took part in the challenging Hafan Pwllheli parkrun which takes place on sand and on Saturday involved an incoming tide! There is never a dull moment at parkrun! You can see all the events attended by AVR members this week: here
ColyTEN Recce
Rob Collier and Karen Eyre organised a recce for a new local race to be known as the ColyTEN, a 10-mile multi-terrain race on Sunday 15 October. Starting and finishing in Colyton it is a challenging trail race with some 1400 feet of elevation but with spectacular views across the Coly valley. Look out for this new race that takes place on Sunday 16 October, 2023.
