Triple AVR success in Berlin
Three AVRs were successful in securing places at the prestigious BMW Berlin marathon this year and all put in tremendous performances. The race, known for its fast and flat course, saw Ethiopia’s Tigsy Assefa smash the women’s marathon world record in a brilliant 2:11.53 and the double Olympic champion, Kenyan Eliud Kipchoge won the men’s race for a record fifth time in 2:02.42. British Olympic hopeful, Charlotte Purdue leapt to second in the UK all-time rankings with her ninth place, 2:22.17
For the AVRs first home was Rob Collier in a very impressive 2:53.14, 1803rd male overall and 84th M50. Haydn Boehm had his taper interrupted battling a virus but still finished with a shiny marathon PB in 3:43.05, male 11206th . Meanwhile Angela Kerr was running an incredible 50th marathon finishing 8681st, female an excellent 46th F65 in 4:42.27.
More than 40,000 completed the race which also saw former AVR, Graham Newton run a very impressive 3:50.03 to take tenth M70 place.
Exmouth 10k
Bob Carter took the short trip to Exmouth for the Bradley’s 10k, a fast and flat two-lap race on the Esplanade. He was pleased with his 58.25 finish 152nd place given the wild and windy conditions on Sunday. More than 250 took part this year.
Marazion 10k
Cliff Marriott, Derek Blumfield, John Hocking and Iain Westworth ran the Marazion 10k in Cornwall on Sunday afternoon. It is a flattish course, described by the organisers wonderfully as a “one loop, left turn race with 131m of elevation, which is basically Cornish flat with a bit of hill near the finish.”
Clearly the route suited Iain who nabbed a PB finishing in 54.06, 125th. First AVR home was John in 104th place in 52.40; Cliff was 141st in 55.41; and Derek, back after a long injury lay-off, was 270th in 1:07.22. More than 300 took part on Sunday. Sadly Viv Blumfield was a DNS due to a knee injury.
Seaton parkrun
It was another successful parkrun for AVR at Seaton with Matt Clist, enjoying his first ever parkrun, coming in first finisher in 16.50 pipping Joel Seward who was second in 17.05. Debbie Whiston was first female in 19.51 and it was a clean sweep for AVR on the age-graded top three with Eleanor Wood with an amazing 90% for her 23.12 followed by Matt Clist, 83% and Debbie Whiston, 80%.
Conditions were excellent on Saturday and Mark Day, 24.14; Andy Broom, 25.11 and Jo Orsman, 26.44 all made the most of it with shiny new PBs.
Co-event director, Carol Austin reached her 250th volunteer milestone.
On the tourism front, Tony Smith and Sam Miller ran Poznan parkrun in Poland while Kristian Mears took part in Farfelle parkrun in Italy. Tim Sibley completed Maesteg in Wales with David and Paula Cooke taking the crown for furthest parkrun this week running Okanagan parkrun in Canada. Other AVRs on the road can be found here:
