Busy and Pioneering Weekend for the Club
The racers tear it up, whilst the trainers grind it out...
It's been a nostalgic week as many of us reminisced about a purple patch of form we had between the late 1940's to the early 50's, where Vic Blowfield, who died recently aged 97, led many teams to glory.
Well, fast-forward some 65 years and the club's Harriers are still cooking up a meaty broth. At the sharpest end, Phil Wicks stormed to an outstanding 5th at the CAU Inter Counties in Loughborough. Phil reports: "Best xc run for a good few years. Could have been better but struggled with a stitch for the last few km which caused me to lose contact with 2nd/3rd/4th. Course was ideal for me too - rolling hills, sticky in places but nothing like the mud bath at Wollaton."And rounding out a superb season over the mud, Andrius Jaksevicius nudged his National return forward a few notches to 45th. Congrats to them both. And if that wasn't enough, in a normal AJ stunt, he promptly won the Surrey Half the next day in sub-70.At the British Indoor Masters, Zoe Doyle set a W35 Championship record to win the 800m in 2:17.01.Elsewhere, a returning to form skipper Gus Upton found himself travelling at sub-70 pace at the Bath half leading up to half-way, which was a tad 'dangereuse' after a torrid winter. He sensibly shuttled back down into 4th gear, but still returned an encouraging 72:30.James Williams nailed the Finchley 20 right on the money with a 1:53 for 6th to leave his London marathon preparations on track; and we're pleased to see Scott Mills zapping a 10k pb [38:15] within the Silverstone half en route to another pb of 1:26.Closer to home, Charlie Dickinson put on a fine training weekend from Belgrave Hall, aided and abetted by a comprehensive strength and conditioning session by Felicity Cole. The Sunday morning 'longey' was probably the best attended Sunday run out of Belgrave Hall for some 40 years, with no fewer than 18 "boys and girls" in attendance [9 of each].We reproduced this classic photo of another weekend run from the hall in 1923.THEN:
NOW:
As can be seen the fine house in the background remains unchanged, as do the buildings on the left and right at the back, with each of their two high windows in place.From L-R [where it's a tie, ladies first]: Megan Bailey, Matt Welsh, Helen White, Arne Dumez, Jojo Rhodes, Sally Underhill, Nick Buckle, Claire Stokes, Fi Maddocks, Ed Auden, Becky O'Kill, Saron Haileselase, Adam Cameron, Charlie Dickinson, Alex Mills, Felicity Cole, James Goymour & Will Cockerell.