more May race news
Jude Rodrigues surprised club mates by popping up in the results for the Southampton Marathon on the 5th May. In this 2 lapped course that runs past the football stadium, Jude took his place in the 1000 runner strong field. Jude went through the halfway marker in 2hr 10 minutes and then gallantly finished in front of the Southampton Guildhall in a respectable 5:05:43 hr - there will surely be more to come from Jude this summer and this signals well for his Stage 1 leg of the Cotswold Way Relay.
Lesley Allaway has been busy racing of late and on the 5th May, she looked to continue her current great form in the 568 runner Glastonbury Round The Tor 10K. On an undulating course, Lesley tackled the Somerset roads well to record 61.52… a PB by 2 seconds compared to her Draycote 10K in April.
On Sunday 19th May, club captain Roy Northcott competed in the undulating Worcester Marathon for another bow towards his 100 marathon goal. With the weather far more conducive to marathon running than last year’s sweltering conditions, Roy was happy with his time of 4:35:58, especially so soon after the Newport Marathon.
Sunday 26th May proved to be a busy day for Tewkesbury Running Club members, as the Worcester Pitchcroft 10K, Dymock Half Marathon, Bredon Cricket Club Tower 10K all took centre stage.
At Worcester, 3 TRC members made the short trip for the perfectly flat 10K 3 lapped race around the racecourse. In her first race since coming back to the UK, Sharon Lockley performed very close to her PB in a time of 51:25 and also claimed the 1st V55 Ladies prize.
Lesley Allaway ran a very consistent race to record 62:55. Finally for the club, Mike Ward made a welcome return to racing after some time off for cataract surgery to claim 1st V80 in 71:15.
Closer to home, 6 Tewkesbury Running Club members tackled the Bredon Cricket Club Tower 10K. Starting in Lower Westmancote, runners quickly scramble up to the 299m high summit of Bredon Hill, circling the Bredon Tower before the fast descent back to the village cricket club.
Vlad Vengler has been very committed in his training of recent and in a recent trip back to his homeland of Slovakia, Vlad put in some very impressive runs. All this paid off as Vlad arrived back to the finish line in a well deserved 5th place, behind some very good runners in a time of 46mins 13secs.
Fresh from his great run in London Marathon in April, Stuart Bird ran well in his local race to come home in 50mins 08secs in 15th place.
Lucinda Jones took on the climbs with relish and enjoyed the downhills to claim 4th lady and a great time of 52 mins 10 secs.
Next came 2 locals to Bredon. Laura Spence ran 57min 46min to claim the prize of 1st Female Cricket Club member home for the 3rd year running. Carol Cowley ran a very similar time to last year and was happy with her under the hour time of 58min 16secs.
Jude Rodrigues had his first run since the Southampton marathon and rounded up a successful day for TRC with a 61min 53secs clocking.
Vicky Earls travelled to London for the Westminster Mile on Sunday 26th May. Vicky has been concentrating on her short speed work recently and was delighted to record 8.02 for the race, recording a 22 second PB.
Striking whilst the iron was hot, 2 days later Vicky lined up for the Pomphrey 5K organised by Bristol and West AC. Lining up in a hot looking field of 128 runners, Vicky was very happy to record 27:54; her new 5K road PB.
James Head also toed the lined and after a promising 1st mile, faded a bit to record 18:08 in 41st position; a time that he will hope to better this year.
Over in the Dymock Half Marathon, five runners took to the start of the undulating course through remote villages and rural lanes.
The surprise performer of the day was Chris Nicholls; quite remarkably Chris ran the punishing course in a new PB time of 2:11 hr! No one, not even Chris, had expected such a good performance and large chunk off his Tewkesbury HM time earlier in the month. The new Ledbury mayor, Phillip Howells, supported his local event finishing in 2:53 hr – far from his best but he knew during the early stages that it wasn’t to be his day.
Noel Green is a regular runner in these parts and managed to improve on his 2018 time with 1:43 hr. Noel had sight of Michael Jackson and did run him close however, Michael is finding form just about now and looks to tackle an epic Gloucester Sharpness canal long distance event in June. Then he has the small matter of Stage 8 in the Cotswold Way Relay! His 1:42 hr is credit worthy. Jon Mansfield stepped-up to the distance for the first time this year as he heads for the National ½ Ironman championship in Chester – which, of course, ends with a half marathon. His 1:32 hr was very hard work.
The Gloucester 10k
The City Of Gloucester 10K held in mid May (not to be confused with the original Gloucester 10k in the summer). Lining up with former European 10,000m Champion and previous Olympian, Jo Pavey, Tewkesbury Running Club's own Simon Crilley was all set for his race. Having given Jo Pavey a run for her money in the first few metres, Simon then settled into the race well and produced his 2nd best 10K performance since Bourton 10K earlier in the year to finish with an excellent time of 40mins 47secs to claim 31st place and 4th V45.
