It’s been a very busy week for Almost Athletes, with lots of local events on over the weekend, as well as the usual plethora of parkruns all over!
The weekend saw three local races, starting on Friday night with the club’s own Meteor Mile at Staverton Airport, followed by the Alderton 5k on Saturday morning, and finally the main event of the Run Cheltenham 10k and half marathon on Sunday. Quite a few intrepid club members completed the hat-trick of events, culminating in the half, with Johnny Rea making it a double hat-trick and achieving a PB at all three events (5:25; 18:49; and 1:34:29), as well as being first club member home in the first two.
Dave Nelson did similar, achieving a “post-covid” PB at all three races (8:55, 32:00, and 2:36:13); while the trifecta was also completed by Declan Walker, Elliot Jordan, Steven Wood, Ross Greening, Duncan Mounsor, and Ingrid Harris. Despite the exertions of the three events, Duncan ran his fastest 5k of 2024 at Alderton, while Steven ran a PB at Meteor Mile (5:57). Oliver Bell also competed three times, running the 10k event on Sunday.
There were a number of other P
Bs achieved across the weekend. At Meteor Mile, Josh Rimell (5:37), Richard Knightley (6:14), and Caroline Rea (7:47) all achieved new bests; while at Alderton, Jamie Baron (19:35), Vivienne Ravenhill (22:18) and Ivana Wilson (23:17) all did likewise. Meanwhile, Graeme Stopp PB’d at both of those events, finishing in 6:45 on Friday and 22:27 on Saturday. There were also fantastic results from Neil Tring at both events, setting new MV65 club records of 6:23 at Meteor Mile and 21:16 at Alderton.
Not to be outdone, there were plenty of new milestones set at Run Cheltenham as well, despite the hot conditions. At the half marathon distance, Josh Rimell smashed his previous best by almost 11 minutes to finish in 1:27:48, while Sarah Wood (1:46:42) and Adele Steptoe (2:00:21) also PB’d over the 13.1 mile distance. At the 10k, Philip Brewer set a new PB of 54:26.
There were plenty of personal achievements at the races as well. Jo Johnson was first Almost lady home at Meteor Mile; Natalie Wizard ran her fastest 5k since having a baby at Alderton (31:33); and Peter Mitchener was very happy with his time of 21:21 at the same event. Hollie Galvin was delighted with her time of 56:56 at the Run Cheltenham 10k, while Prashanth Sripathi was no doubt just as delighted to see the finish line after running the half marathon in 2:11:34 while dressed in a penguin outfit! Jeanette Gullick put in an amazing performance to finish second in her age category at the half in 1:39:06, while Ingrid Harris also did fantastically well to win her category at the same event in 1:48:17. There was also a course PB for Steve Axford, who exorcised some personal demons from last year to finish in 1:28:55.
Overall, there was an incredibly strong purple presence at all three events – 43 Almosts ran at Meteor Mile; 50 at Alderton; and similar numbers again at Run Cheltenham. The club was also brilliantly represented away from the races themselves, with plenty of members either volunteering or lending fantastic support to the runners all around the course, particularly in Cheltenham on Sunday. The thanks of everyone who ran go out to them for their wonderful encouragement!
Away from the local races, Ben Stone took part in the Henley Trail Half Marathon, finishing in 2:05:59 in his first ever off-road half. At parkrun, Patricia and Kev Dendy took time out of their Italian holiday to run at Roma Caffarella, while Prashanth Sripathi toured a bit more locally, heading to Banbury and finishing third in his age category.
This Saturday also marked a significant milestone for parkrun itself, with the venue of the first ever event, Bushy Park, holding its 1,000th run. Over 6,000 runners turned up to celebrate, including a small contingent of Almosts. Alison Hume, Rob Hume, Zakia Hussain, Jason Hulance and Lawrie Baber-Scovell all loved the experience – even having to queue in the finish funnel for longer than they ran for!
At Lochend Woods, Hamish Adamson was 4th overall and 2nd in category while setting a new course PB of 21:37. Peter Morris (23:38) and Christine Harker (28:01) won their respective age categories at Cheltenham, while Rosemary Hubbard did the same at King George V Playing Fields (23:55), as did Matt Polson at Peel (18:45). There were age category placings for Lesley Cottle at Gloucester North (2nd); Danny Carroll (3rd), Richard Gilbert (2nd) and Kate Nichol (2nd) at Cheltenham, Sharon Hadad (2nd) at KGV, Matt John (2nd) at Berkeley Green, and Brian Maggs (3rd) at Durlston Country Park.
The club was also represented at Worcester Pitchcroft, Eden Project, Evesham, Tewkesbury, Cwmbran, Gloucester City, Mallards Pike, Hockgraben, Trentham Gardens, Edenbrook Country, and Three Brooks.
Well done to everyone from the club on a packed weekend of action!
