'The' Gloucester 10K
Gloucester 10K
Ably organised by Nigel Tillott and a great army of helpers, this year’s Gloucester 10K proved another success. The sell out race was very popular with Tewkesbury Running Club members as 22 runners donned the TRC colours
James Head was first home for Tewkesbury Running Club with a time of 38mins 37mins placing 12th.
Vlad Vlanglar has been enjoying some of his best training runs of recent times and Vlad has been carefully transferring that into race results with an excellent Cotswold Way Relay performance. Lining up on the start of the race, Vlad had ambitions to break the magical sub 40 minute 10K barrier for the his first time.
Vlad carefully paced himself around the distance, with the help of a great running pack to do battle, and with a confident manner, with Vlad cruised into Gloucester Park to dip on the line with clock showing 39mins 35secs. A special day for Vlad ….. which he celebrated with a 10 mile run over Bredon Hill later in the afternoon !
Chris Duckworth although still not back to form, recorded a far better time of 43mins 52secs than the Frampton 10K 6 days previously, which will give him promise for the autumn races later in the year.
Angie Saddler dropped down in distance from her usual marathon efforts to race the City 10K. Angie clocked 46mins 28secs, a performance which shines very brightly when looking at the enviably high age graded score of 83.3 %.
Amanda Martin quietly got on with her performance on the day, as she matched last years Gloucester 10K result to the second with a time of 46mins 38secs. However Amanda’s run needed closer inspection as she easily claimed victory in her V45 10 year age group, giving TRC their only win of the day. As with Angie, Amanda posted up an Age Graded score that others can only aspire to.
Dave Aguirre ran another quality run as he produced a 50mins 16secs 10K, easily knocking over 2 minutes off his previous Gloucester 10K time. Such was the delight of finding a flapjack in the goody bag, Dave was seen to be quick off the mark with the wrapper.
Sharon Lockley was another to quickly turn out for the Gloucester 10K having only ran in the Frampton 10K 6 days previously. On arguably a more testing course, Sharon managed to better her Frampton time by 2 seconds and record another fine time.
TRC Coach Michael Younger had sensibly decided to hydrate well in advance of his 10K race. However with his wife Linda’s 60th Birthday party 2 days previous … hydration was not quite of the right sort ! Mike and Linda’s celebrations continued onto Saturday evening as well … and by the morning of the race both Michael and Linda Younger wondered how the race was to pan out after a weekend of excess ! Michael and Linda ran together, Michael managed to run into only 1 bollard (even though pre warned by Elaine Vincent !) and amazingly both completed the course in a healthy 53mins 3 secs.
The next 3 TRC runners to make the long loop around Gloucester Park before the finish line were 3 runners that ran the race together. Tonia Whitebeam, making a welcome return to racing after her spring marathon, Duncan Tharme, who suffered from bleeding nipples around the course and Cam Pay who is slowly returning from injury, all wisely worked together around the course and all pleasingly came in well under the hour in 58mins 52, 50 and 53 seconds respectively.
Phillip Prince chipped in with a solid time of 53mins 30secs on a course that many find tricky. It was good to Phillip back running after a short break and he surely will regain his sparklingly February Runner Of The Month form
Chris Nicholls, having had a break from his May Runner Of The Month epic running, didn’t have the best of preparations leading up to the race. Chris still timed in at 58mins 1secs and will sure better that time by some margin later in the year.
Sheena Moseley provided Tewkesbury Running Club with another great result from the race. Tackling the race fallen, Sheena pushed herself physically and mentally through the full 10K distance to clock an excellent sub 60mins time of 59mins 28secs - a thoroughly deserved Personal Best for Sheena.
Training partners James Aubrey and Vicky Earls ran the race together and although James suffered from his asthma throughout most the latter part of the race, both enjoyed their tour of Gloucester City and timed 65mins 55, 58secs respectively.
Lesley Allaway has been a frequent racer of late and she took on the Gloucester 10K before she takes on the daunting task of the Frome Half Marathon in a few weeks. Lesley timed in at 64mins 14secs and another similar performance will give her a fine performance at Frome.
Amanda Marshall unfortunately took a tumble just before the half way stage at Gloucester Quays retail centre and had to stop to assess the damage. However with the assistance of Laura Kent, they finished the race together to be greeted by the TRC large contingent at the finish in 81mins 37secs.
Bridgett Lockyer, one of TRC Couch to 5K graduates was taking on the classic 10K distance for the first time with TRC Run Leader Samantha Robinson for company; indeed this was the furthest that Bridgett had ever ran !
Bridgett and Sam came into Gloucester Park triumphantly with a whole host of TRC members cheering her on for her debut 10K time of 83mins 32secs. Amazingly, Bridgett was then back out on a club 5 mile run the next day !
