Team Blizard Race Report
“Blizard” it the right word to use this week as the weather claim several races that were planned over the weekend but hopefully will get rescheduled this week, fingers crossed!
There was however still some action to be had and the first race to comment on was the winter version of “Hell on the Humber” which involves 6 hours of running back and forth across the not so flat Humber bridge!
Big shout out to regular Blizard Run Club strength and conditioning athlete Nat Cunningham who managed to come 2nd place lady overall running in temperatures that dropped to -10 during the event!
Moving to warmer climates over in Valencia, Spain saw the super fast Valencia marathon which is quickly earning the reputation of the place to go to run fast times.
We had several Blizard athletes running in this final marathon of the year for the team and which rounded up what has been our most successful marathon block ever in terms of results.
First athlete to mention is coached runner Paul Massey from Derby who has broken every single personal best this year from 5k right up to the marathon.
2023 has been a great year for Paul and this was rounded off by a great performance in the marathon where his remit was to enjoy the race which he certainly did by the smile on his face as he crossed the line.
Shane Grace from the Leeds club St Theresa’s was another coached athlete who excelled and dug very deep in the race as developed an injury mid race yet still managed to hang on to run his 2nd fastest marathon of all time and stop the clock in an excellent 2.32hrs for a top 10 placing on the UK V45 rankings for the year which is some achievement.
Another St Theresa and coached athlete in Elle Warren went faster than she has ever done before to record a new lifetime personal best and despite being tripped at a water station around half way and someone standing on her calf! Big things will come from this lady in 2024 if we can keep her on her feet!
However, this week’s “Run of the Week” goes to yet another coached athlete in Cleethorpes Callum Ely who took an amazing 10 minutes off his previous marathon time.
For someone who works offshore to commit to the training required to run a marathon is impressive but to better your previous time by that margin in very good.
For all those who raced the marathon now is time to rest, recover before starting the process again and enjoy a few well earnt beers!
Hopefully, we have a turn in the weather this week ahead so more normal service can resume until then………keep training!
