Race Report 13th March 2023

Choose a surface! Choose a distance! We have it all in this week’s Blizard Race Report that has seen some excellent performance up and down the country and abroad for us all to celebrate.

 

 

Kicking off the action we go to the super fast and popular Even Splits York 5k which is held on the cycle track close to the university.

First home of the training group and continuing his rich vein of form was Lee Varley who stormed round the 5 laps to take a new personal best. He was chased  hard by coached athlete Rome Doisneau who is deep in marathon training and used the race as some speedwork while it was great to see regular training partner Andy Teasdale clock a new personal best too just a few strides behind Rome.

 

 

Stepping up a bit in distance we have 10 mile road races to report from. The 10 mile races are few and far between in what used to be a very popular racing distance several years ago and only a handful of them are still around.

Over in Nottingham Gainsboro’ athlete Chris Inman had an excellent run in the Notts 10 to take the V70 win while over in the Thirsk 10 mile road race held on the same day we saw a brand new personal best from Blizard Run Club athlete Jody Murray who smashed his previous best which was only set back in January! Showing that strength work is paying off with his running.

Staying with Saturday but switching surfaces to the cross country and we saw what is the last major domestic cross country race with the Inter-Counties race being held over at Prestwold Hall near Loughboro.

 

Our very own athlete Lee Milburn had one of his best runs ever to record a top 40th position in the Senior Men’s race and there was a fine performance too from training partner Tom Shaw running for Nottinghamshire.

 

 

Moving into Sunday and staying with the off road theme we saw the next round of the local cross country league which this time was held in the muddy conditions in Worksop.

Deciding it wasn’t worth cleaning his spikes Tom Shaw turned out again less than 24 hours since his Inter-Counties showing to take a high placed position overall while there simply was too many other local athletes running to mention everyone but we saw a huge turnout of running from Clowne Road Runners who have recently been to the clinic.

 

Beverley Westwood hosted the Yorkshire Vets cross country championships on Sunday and our very own Keri Pearson used the race as a good hard training session before doing a 10 mile warm down as she prepares for the hilly Leeds marathon in May and ran superbly to take 2nd V35 medal position!

 

 

Getting back onto firmer ground and moving up distances this time to the half marathon firstly, we saw coached athlete Paul Massey run over in the Lisbon half marathon while still a little under the weather but there are plenty more races to aim for and Steve Hamilton racing in the Milton Keynes half marathon as he used the race as a sharpener toward the forthcoming London marathon.

 

The final race to report from and one that earns “Run of the week” for these two athletes as they deserve an extra special mention goes to Shane Grace and Chris Griffiths who both pulled on their England Master’s vest to race over 10k in the Chester 10k.

Over a challenging course both performed superbly and hopefully will savor their runs in years to come.

Both runners have improved over the last few years and a massive well done from myself for the investment they have made in themselves to earn this moment.

 

 

 

Let’s keep this amazing momentum going and thank you everyone who sent in your results as it really does help us to pull them together.

Until next week…….keep training!