Alderton 5km
Tewkesbury Running Club surprised the race organisers in Alderton village by fielding a record number of runners for the annual Alderton 5km; normally supported by 2 or 3 club runners, this year saw over a dozen colourful athletes keen to tackle the 5km ‘out & back’ country lane course which featured a final couple of hundred yards around the football pitch.
Only arriving minutes before the start, Simon Meadows lead the club back into the village after gaining a lead on the 2017 winner Jon Mansfield. Simon went on the finish 6th in 18:47 minutes and just miss-out on the Vets prize after being out-sprinted to the line. The result was somewhat debateable as the Vet winner did, in fact, not complete the whole course as he failed to round the turnaround cone to save several yards off his run. Simon was mellow with the outcome as the race was all about charity and having fun – but a bottle of Prosecco did slip from his grasp!
Jon trailed back in 19:11 minutes, a couple of minutes behind his time from 2 years ago. For Jon though, it was baffling to be overtaken by Simon on the mile when only 16 hours earlier he was beaten by the club’s other Simon (Crilley) in the County Jubilee Mile.
Finishing as 4th female overall was Suzanne Tharme. Suzie ran well and was only 10 seconds away from a podium place with 23:49.
The man of the moment, Nick Curd not only ran off the back of his first 10k race in Pershore but quite an astonishing performance the night before in the Gloucestershire Track Championships winning double Gold, well he had a great 5km with a new PB and hot on the heels of Suzanne with 24:19 minutes.
Arriving late with Simon, Lindsay Dyer ran the course in a fine 25:13 mins and had to pull-out a rapid finish to secure her top 50 place in a competitive women’s field.
Guest runner Bob Tharme ran 25:30 – Bob is a top class swimmer and proved his worth on dry land too.
Matt Stevens crossed the line in 26:39 minutes after working hard on the return leg of the race.
Phillip Prince started strongly before finding the second 2.5 km a challenge as it ascended back up to the village playing fields. He made it a family finish with 26:57 mins.
Duncan Tharme and Cameron Pay tussled for positions throughout the course and a gigantic effort by Duncan over the last few yards was all too much for Cameron to hold and the pair were separated by 2 seconds on the official results: Dunc = 28:31, Cam = 28:33.
Sarah Smith cut inside the top 100 and also easily under 30 minutes with 29:31 mins – she looked in the comfort zone so expect more to come from this exciting prospect.
Runner of the Month, Lesley Allaway continues to impress with a tidy 30:24 mins and finished with her trademark smile.
Dan Chandler smashed it in 31:15 mins – hard graft running back up to the village however his effort and commitment was ‘on point’.
Amanda Marshall laid down a marker where she is with her running right now and it’s a good mark indeed. Displaying smooth technique, she graced the finishing funnel with good pace to time 39:25 mins.
Bridget Lockyer recorded an impressive sub40 with 39:37 mins in 194th place from a surprisingly nippy field of 220 runners.
In addition to enjoying a pleasant mid-morning run, the runners contributed funds to the Alderton Acorns which is a splendid village pre-school. The Tewkesbury contingent also helped clean away some of the freshly baked cakes.
