Week 1
We have a winner! Huge congratulations to Matt Langtree, who executed his plan to perfection in winning the Battle of Brampton Valley Way Ultra. He completed the 28 miles in 3.20.07.
While Matt was busy on the Leicestershire-Northamptonshire border a host of Roadhoggs were strutting their stuff at Swithland. For once, the weather for much of the race was ideal for racing and this was reflected in some great times. There were excellent debuts for Nick, Rash, Amy and Gary, plus lots of PBs and shiny standards. It was great to have Mo back and as he wasn’t in shape to contest the win, he unselfishly paced Gurmit to a big PB. Also getting in on the PB action were Sam J, Ashveer, David W, Kathryn, John D, Leah, Mark Richards, Lee and Cath.
Standards: Platinum (Dave P), Diamond (Gurmit, Kathryn and Marjorie), Gold (Mo, Haseeb, Mike, Dave L and Sally), Silver (Sam, Tim, Ashveer, Rambo, James, David W, Steve W, Leah, Paul, Andy and Dave Brownlow), Bronze (John D, Harry, Terry, Dave Bullivant, Sophie, Mark R and Helen), Copper (Nick, Marcus, Charly, Baz, Cath and Gary), Pewter (Lee, Mary, Rash, Sandra and Brian), Tungsten (Charlotte, Amy and Sarah). As a result of that lot, Cath and Charly have completed Copper Standards, Brian has upgraded to Pewter, Harry to Copper, Mark Richards to Bronze and Leah to Silver. Well done all.
Week 2
Last week, in my haste to recount Matt’s win and all the great runs at Swithland, I forgot to report that Chris W did the Gargrave HM (2.06.28). This low key canal towpath event neatly segues into a popular activity this last weekend, namely the Foxton Trot. Fortunately, given the scorching weather, this is more of an organised social run than a race, so people were able to take it easy. Well done to the Hogg contingent of Marcus, Hilary Bu, Grace, Gary, Cath, Chris, Lee, Charlotte and Vijay.
Earlier in the week it was the ever popular Rothley 10k. Our representatives were: Max (42.23), Ashveer (42.54), Neil (46.05), Mark Richards (51.33), Martin Cr (51.35), Amy B (57.23), George (58.28), Cath (1.00.32), Chris (1.00.32) and Sarah (1.17.05).
Our track star Gurmit was in action at the Midland Masters Champs 1500m, coming 2nd in his age group behind Scot Green of OWLs and recording a new PB of 4.27.86. Looking at his Po10 record, I think I must have missed him doing a 4.55 mile in the Podium event at the beginning of May. Well done Gummi.
Week 3
The Feldman family seem drawn to the bigger challenges. No doubt Brian (who I missed from last week’s list of Foxton Trotters) is planning to go long at some point this summer, but this weekend it was the turn of Charly to take centre stage. She completed the ‘Wall Ultra-Marathon’ running 70 miles from Carlisle to Newcastle in 18.17.44. She was 190th overall of 362 finishers and 37th female (of 87). She finished injury free, still running and seems to have enjoyed the experience.
Week 4
Thirty four hardy souls made it round the Prestwold 10k in one piece. We were delighted to welcome Ruth and Minisha to their first races for us and Adrian made his road debut. Unsurprisingly, fast times weren’t plentiful. I was just about to confidently state that there weren’t any PBs, but remarkably Gurmit did take a few seconds off his. Our major success though, was Mo returning to winning ways and scooping the County 10k title as well.
Standards were down too, but Dave P completed Gold and both Haseeb and I managed Silver. We’ll all be hoping to upgrade on those later in the season.
Harry was our only representative at the Bosworth 5 on Thursday and that, coupled with his efforts yesterday gave him a Distinction.
There was some triathlon action at Rutland Water yesterday as well. In the Dambuster Standard Distance (1500m swim, 40km bike, 10km run) Terry finished in 3.13.24. In the Sprint Distance (750m swim, 20km bike, 5km run) experienced competitor Nick (1.21.23) was joined by novices Blake (1.39.28) and Sarah (1.43.51). Well done all.
