Week 1
Plenty to round up this week. I’ll start with what I missed last week. On the 27th, Sam and Dave P ran the 3000m at the Loughborough Open meeting. Dave recorded a season’s best of 10.45.08 and Sam who, having set himself a target of going sub-11 minutes for the first time, came home in 10.59.96. Sam followed this up with a 39.36 PB in the Wilne 10k, yesterday.
On Saturday, Gurmit came 4th in the British Masters V40 1500m in 4.26.92, which is almost a second inside his PB.
We had a fantastic 41 finishers in the Rotherby 8 yesterday. There was a great atmosphere and it was brilliant to see everyone giving so much support and encouragement. We’ll have to wait until the weekend for official team and individual tables, but everyone rallied to the cause and I’m hopeful that we achieved our team objectives. One result I can share is that Mo’s second place means he has retained his title after a fantastic season-long battle with Matt Scarsbrook of Badgers. In the end, there was only a single point separating the two class athletes in the field. It was great to welcome back John McDonald (who finished 1st vet) and Dale after significant injuries and to witness debuts from Nicole and Tej. It was also a pleasure to welcome Fiona for her only league race of the year and to be able to present her with a Special Achievement Award for her fantastic run at UTMB in summer 22. Kathryn was 1st V50 and Ruth put in a great run to earn a Gold Standard.
A warm day and a tough course meant generally slower times, but Sally and Sarah V both managed PBs. Mo upgraded his County Standard to Platinum and Tim to Silver. Grace completed Tungsten and James Bronze.
Week 2
Well done to Dave P, who took on the Vilnius Marathon, coming home in 3.17.12 (which might be enough for a ‘Good for Age’ at London). Our other travellers were on Tyneside for the Great North Run. I’m sure the very un-Geordie weather will have added to the usual logistical challenges, so congratulations to Sally (1.56.21), Helen W (2.16.45), Gary (2.22.16) and Lee (2.42.00). There is a photograph of Gary with a beer at mile 11, so he was obviously concentrating on staying well hydrated.
There were two important parkrun milestones on Saturday; Julian registered his 200th and Mo went sub-15 minutes for the first time. A special mention for Dan Creedon, who ran 21.54 slashing a cool 2 minutes off his PB.
With the dust now settled on the 2023 LRRL it’s time to look at a spectacular final race for the club. We needed a special performance from our senior men to secure their Division 1 status for another year and an outstanding one from our vet men to nick a podium place. We also needed our ladies to put aside the disappointment of the senior team being relegated and to step up for the mixed team.
Every single one of the 41 members who ran for us contributed a lot, but a few deserve a special mention. Gurmit had an entry for the British Masters and in all probability would have picked up a medal, but he came to Rotherby and scored important points for the team. Dave P should have been taking it easy before his Marathon, but he ran like his life depended on it. John McDonald, Matt Langtree and the peerless Jackie Brown all made comebacks from injury to help the cause. The end result was our senior men beating Hinckley to stay up and our mixed team also securing their status. In the vet men’s we had to beat Wreake by more than a point. Wreake weren’t about to go down easily and recorded a performance that beat every team in the division, bar one, securing 17 points. I’m proud to say that the team they couldn’t beat were wearing burgundy and the 20 points they earned were decisive.
Whilst Roadhoggs will always rely on a team effort, several members have picked up individual awards and we’ll look forward to celebrating with them in November at both the LRRL and club award evenings. As well as champion Mo, Ashveer was 2nd U20 (in his first season for the club), Dad Gurmit was 3rd V40, Captain Anna was 2nd V45, Kathryn was 2nd V50 (behind only the peerless Nicki Nealon), Dave P secured a big result at Rotherby to grab 3rd V55 and Brian was 3rd V75.
Week 3
Equinox 24 was the big event of the weekend. Congratulations to everyone who ran, especially our epic solo runners – Blake (10) and Anna (10).
Team Wildhoggs (Large team, 24 Laps): Neil (4), Tim P (4), Marcus (4), John D (3), Terry (3), Mat J (3) and Julian (3).
Team Purple Hoggettes (Large team, 20 laps): Helen A (4), Charlotte (3), Amy L (3), Jude (3), Komal (3), Mary (2) and Claire (2).
Team Pink Hoggettes ((Small team, 19 laps): Charly (6), Cath (5), Adele (5) and Helen W (3). Charly and Adele’s efforts included night time doubles.
In other news, there was a (sub-17) parkrun PB for Gurmit, a 17.26 PB for Matt Langtree, and a 2.00.25 Half Marathon PB for Martin Crighton.
Week 4
The action this weekend was plenty and varied. Sophie ran a very hot Robin Hood HM (2.04.09) and Rambo (42.09) and Jackie (50.56) ran the Sandringham Trail 10k. We had 4 Croft Canterers; Marcus, Sally, Grace and Sandra, and Brian showed all his legendary toughness to complete the Clipston Trail HM (think hills, ploughed fields and heat).
