Scenic Six

A firm favourite on the local race scene is the Scenic Six over in Peopleton near Pershore. It’s a fine event which raises funds for the St Richard’s Hospice. This year over £3,500 was collected and Tewkesbury Running Club played their part by not only boasting cake sales but also entering a fine group of runners.

Tewkesbury finest performer on the day came in the shape of Gary Pavey.

Gary has been working especially hard this year with his training and his commitment is an example to us all.

The Scenic Six course is far from scenic – the original course may have been but, over the last four years, the course has been morphed into a cross country style event mainly over fields with a mile of farm track in the middle. Chances to take in surrounding views are limited and considering the volume of rain which fell during the proceeding days, puddles of mud were a familiar sight! These conditions all added value to Gary’s performance as he wore road shoes! Undeterred, he ran a competitive race and even managed to “take out” more experienced runners over the final fields.

No one had less experience that Tewkesbury’s Chris Duckworth; for Chris this was his first ever race and did himself proud. Also enjoying regular training this year, Chris ran a mature race and topped it by overhauling Jude Rodrigues in a sprint finish. Pershore based Jude ran well per sae but the fatiguing conditions were merciless.

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Tewkesbury’s girls all worked hard and all four of them gave noteworthy performances: Jane Saucer won the veterans category, Sharon Peters faced her off-road fears with a late entry and did muddy well. Karen Maber ran a good time despite not training as much as she would like to and Elaine Vincent passed the test with top marks as she looks forward to the Cotswold Way Relay next in June.

There was strong spectator support for the Tewkesbury colours though mainly for Paul Booth who didn’t disappoint.

Steve Maber joined Jane with a veteran title with the V50 1st place, a great double for TRC while Jon Mansfield hardly warrants a mention – after finishing runner-up three or four times previous, Jon had to settle for 7th as he continues to fall from grace.