Week 1

Winners! Congratulations to our LRRL Summer League Award Winners. Mo won the Senior Men’s title with a perfect score, Kathryn was 1st V50, Jackie was 2nd V60, Dave P was 2nd V55 and Gurmit was 3rd V45. Just missing out were James B (5th V40), Ashveer (5th U23), Helen W (4th V55) and Ruth (5th V55). Prizes will be presented at the LRRL Awards Evening on Friday 1st November (details below).

A massive well done to everyone who ran for us in the League this year. Our Senior Women put in a fantastic performance at Markfield to secure promotion as Division 2 Runners-up. Our Vet Men finished 3rd, our Vet Women 4th, Senior Men and Mixed teams 5th in Division 1. That means we will have all of our teams in Division 1 for 2025 (Huncote are the only other club to do this).

Caroline and Sandra both enjoyed a rare dry day for the Hoby Hop Trail Race on Saturday. Well done both.

As a postscript to last week’s news from the Berlin Marathon, Hilary’s achievement was all the more remarkable for the fact that she had a bad fall at 40k and finished with a broken wrist and a cut requiring stitches. We all wish her a speedy recovery.

Week 2

What a day! We had over 40 members in action yesterday (and I spotted at least a dozen ex-members in the Leicester HM/10k too). Mo claimed his 3rd win in the Half, although he was left a little frustrated that the crowded course stopped him from getting the PB he was probably capable of. Plenty of others did record PBs, though; Dan C, Gary, Sarah V, Charlotte and Sandra. In the 10k, our first 4 finishers all beat (Gurmit, Ian A and Sam J) or equalled (Matt L) their PBs. Gurmit also finished 5th (1st veteran) and picked up a County Silver Medal for his efforts.

10k: Gurmit 33.31, Matt L 36.19, Ian A 38.58, Sam J 39.51, Jason 41.34, David Brownlow 50.14, John D (55-minute pacer) 55.08, Lee 57.41, Baz 58.27, Paul C 1.03.29, Minisha 1.18.33 and Brian 1.30.51.

HM: Mo 1.07.27, Tim P 1.33.33, David W 1.36.03, Kathryn 1.36.10 (2nd V50), Amar 1.37.34, Dan C 1.39.25, Neil 1.42.20, Anna 1.44.00, Ricky 1.43.51, Paul M 1.45.50, Marjorie 1.49.18, Sophie 1.55.14, Sanjay 1.55.42, Mark Ri 1.58.19, Gary 2.08.50, Sarah V 2.09.01, Blake 2.09.03, Tej 2.07.55, Charlotte 2.17.48, Cath 2.19.43, Sandra 2.35.45, Rash 2.43.34, Hazel 2.40.48 and Sarah Ri 3.20.14.

In other Half Marathon news, Nicole smashed her PB in the Great Eastern (1.42.44), Martin W did 2.19.22 in the Royal Parks and Aimee recorded 1.52.16 and Amy B 2.13.13 in Manchester. And finally, Helen W and Alice decided to go long, making their ultramarathon debuts at the North Chilterns 50k (7.18.11). Well done all.

As a result of all this activity, Martin W completed his Pewter Standard and Gary, Sophie and Nick upgraded theirs to Copper, Bronze and Pewter, respectively.

Week 3

Unfortunately the Great South Run was cancelled on safety grounds, due to high winds. In Queensland however, the weather was a little better and Fiona got to complete the Blackall 50k (with 5,000ft vert). She finished in 6.37, 12th female and 1st V50/V60, with the race overall being won by a V40 woman.

It was a quiet week in the parks with the speedsters either staying at home or taking it easy. Gary went to Quakers Walk (Devizes) to get his Q and complete his alphabet challenge and other bits of tourism included Harry at Roding Valley (Essex), John D at Cannon Hill, Sarah and Mark at Jesmond Dene and Nicola and Adrian at Wyre Forest.

Week 4

Yesterday saw the cross country season start in glorious sunshine. An earlier date for Bagworth meant a bit less mud, but there was still enough to put those XC shoes through their paces. Sam will provide a full report when the results come out, but Gurmit and Katie B were our first runners home and there were also debuts for Ben, Nicola and Krista. Our runners packed well, so it was a good day for our teams.

Further afield, Adele went back to her roots, completing the Dublin Marathon in 4.31.26 and Kathryn (3.29.01) and David (4.08.13) did the Marine Corps Marathon in Arlington USA.

Congratulations to Nicole and Dave Brownlow on parkrun PBs and to Jackie (expertly paced by Matt L) on her Diamond Standard.