An action-packed bank holiday weekend for Dacorum & Tring AC

A full weekend of events took place for Dacorum & Tring roadrunners at the weekend which started on Saturday morning with over 40 members out running and volunteering at parkrun events far and wide.
The Dacorum & Tring AC team at the CakeathonThe Dacorum & Tring AC team at the Cakeathon
The Dacorum & Tring AC team at the Cakeathon

There were lots of PB’s achieved and a 50th parkrun milestone for Jessica Tanner.

Samantha Fawcett was at The Cyclopark in Kent continuing her preparation for the upcoming Duathlon World Championships.

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She was racing in the Crits At The Park event and made good progress towards moving up into the next class category by scoring her first points in these highly competitive races

The Dacorum & Tring AC team at PednorThe Dacorum & Tring AC team at Pednor
The Dacorum & Tring AC team at Pednor

Over 1200 runners descended on Milton Keynes early on Sunday to take part in the Rocket 5k race.

Five D&T athletes competed, coming back with some very impressive times. Russell Morris finished as 45th male and 51st place overall with a swift time of 19:25.

Tony Reeve was 95th male in 21:06 a new PB just a week after a great run at the London marathon.

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Clare Hunt was the 35th female in 22:37 and Jim Mason ran a brilliant race scoring a new personal best of 23:39.

The Dacorum & Tring AC ladies' team at the MK MarathonThe Dacorum & Tring AC ladies' team at the MK Marathon
The Dacorum & Tring AC ladies' team at the MK Marathon

Kayleigh Halvey ran superbly to get another personal best time of 27:01 despite not being able to get to any club training sessions for the last few weeks due to work commitments.

Many club members ran 3.2-miles on Sunday in various locations as part of a virtual run. This was in honour of captain David Seath who sadly passed away while running the London Marathon last week.

He collapsed at the 23-mile mark, 3.2 miles short of the finish. All profits raised from the run are to be donated to Help For Heroes charity which he was representing.

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Brittany Salt ran The Great Birmingham 10k and finished well below the 50-minute mark in 49:08. Richard Blaxhill was also running and crossed the line in 46:53.

The Dacorum & Tring AC men's team at the MK MarathonThe Dacorum & Tring AC men's team at the MK Marathon
The Dacorum & Tring AC men's team at the MK Marathon

The focus was back on Milton Keynes on Monday for the main events of the half and full marathons. Dacorum & Tring had 20 representatives competing across the two races, putting in some fine performances.

In the half marathon, Jamie Marlow had a more relaxed run than usual as he was acting as a pacer for the sub-90 minute runners.

He paced to perfection, finishing in 1:29:38 and was 34th overall from over 2200 entrants.

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Richard Brawn followed shortly after in 1:34:51, putting him in 77th place, while Russell Morris was also acting as a pacer and finished as 49th VM40 in 1:42:28.

The Dacorum & Tring AC team at PednorThe Dacorum & Tring AC team at Pednor
The Dacorum & Tring AC team at Pednor

Rasmi Nanda got himself a PB of 1:47:23 just two weeks after running the Brighton Marathon he was just a second ahead of Ken Perry who ran a very solid 1:47:24 which put him high up in the VM60 category and set a new club record again.

Robert Davies was 132nd VM40 in 1:52:39 and Tony Reeve 70th VM50 with a time of 1:53:59, Robert Lewis ran very well to clock 1:57 exactly.

Jim Mason was a mere 21 seconds behind in 1:57:21, earning himself his second personal best time of what has been a great weekend for him. Rounding off the roadrunners half marathon line up was Gary Sturdy running a gutsy race and finishing in 2:17:35.

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In the marathon, Hannah Bennett provided what was probably the individual performance of the day. Making her second attempt at the 26.2 mile distance at MK she ran an incredible race to finish in 3:28:38 – a PBby some 25 minutes which put her as eighth placed senior lady and should earn her a good for age entry to the London marathon in 2017.

Richard Stevens was also running his second marathon and crossed the line in 4:48:50 which is a personal best.

The club entered two strong teams in the marathon relay event, one all male and one all female.

The Dacorum & Tring AC ladies' team at the MK MarathonThe Dacorum & Tring AC ladies' team at the MK Marathon
The Dacorum & Tring AC ladies' team at the MK Marathon

The men’s team of Jamie Saunders, Matt Hamilton, Duncan Hamilton and Douglas Hamilton finished just off the podium in fourth place out of 77 teams entered in 2:44:22.

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Equally as impressive was the ladies’ team made up of Jules Robinson, Clare Hunt, Ania Gabb and Samantha Fawcett as they finished as seventh team overall and the first all female team in 3:10:12.

Also on Monday a large contingent of club members ran the Cakeathon race based in Betteshanger Country Park in Kent.

Aptly called a Cakeathon due to the ample, varied supply of cake available, there were some gutsy performances.

Showing tenacity and determination, Kirsty Russell joined the lofty heights of the ultra club, completing seven laps, covering an impressive 30.5 miles.

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Chris Marriott also excelled himself, completing an ultra having not run more than a half-marathon until now.

Kodie Mitchell astounded all when she ran six laps to complete marathon distance, 26.2m having never run this distance or specifically trained for it.

Bride-to-be Jessica Tanner and David Stears also ran a marathon, with David still having last week’s London Marathon miles fatiguing his legs.

Michelle Ashwell and Victoria Thornley put in a strong performance to complete five laps, 21.8 miles.

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Sam Hawkridge and Claire Copperwhite both did four laps, 17.5 miles.

Stepping up to make their half-marathon debut and then going beyond were Danielle Kerr and Janice Briggs, also managing the four laps.

Steve Russell, having not been well for the weekend as well as running a marathon last week, still managed to pull a half marathon out of the bag.

Alex Bayliss, also with a marathon still heavy in her legs and a foot injury, managed the 13.1 miles before retiring.

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Rebecca White, also recovering from her recent marathon, put in a solid performance to achieve the three laps.

Tim Churchill, Emma Donovan, Ant Gomm, Catherine Davis and Alex Pud Dean all earned their huge Cakeathon medal by running two laps, 8.75 miles.

Rob Deane, Alexis Bunce, Charlotte Ashton and Helen Reardon walked or ran one lap, 4.3 miles.

Capping off a very successful weekend, a team of 15 attended the Pednor 5 mile race in Chesham on Monday evening

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Matty Earles was first back for the purple people, running a fast 32:04. Steve Shaw followed in 33:05, Richard Bentley 35:30, Bernie Horabin 35:57, Keith Wishart 36:37, Samantha Sullivan 37:12, Celia Findlay 37:26, Wendy Pearson 37:39 and Karen Wishart in 38:03.

Rob Salt completed in 38:07, Alison Richardson 40:02, Philip Pugh 40:04, Andy Mitchell 40:22, Gwen Mostyn 42:38 and Penny Wallduck 44:28.

The ladies’ team performed well and had five of the female top 20 positions in the main race, meaning they finished as third placed team.

As this doubled up as the Hertfordshire Veterans Championships, the club did especially well and collected several awards. Matty Earles, Stephen Shaw, Richard Bentley and Keith Wishart were awarded first placed men’s team.

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This was matched by the ladies’ team of Bernie Horabin, Samantha Sullivan and Celia Findlay. Further highlighting the club depth they also picked up the silver medal in the team category, with Wendy Pearson, Karen Wishart and Gwen Mostyn doing well.

Stephen Shaw won the gold medal in the VM50 age group and Matty Earles won the silver medal VM40.

Samantha Sullivan and Wendy Pearson collected the gold and silver medals respectively in the VW35 cat and Bernie Horabin won the bronze medal in the V45 age group.

Matty Earles’ performance was extra impressive as he had raced a 100km cyclo sportive that morning.

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Elsewhere, Dacorum and Tring runners were out in abundance at various different parkrun venues, bagging several PBs, a 50th parkrun, some hen weekend celebrations and some great age category performances.

Down in Kent at Pegwell Bay parkrun, the theme seemed to be recovery rather than racing as 10 roadrunners tried out the course for the first time.

This was run one of Jessica Tanner’s hen weekend which also included a run on Sunday and Monday.

The pre-wedding festivities coincided with Jess reaching the 50-parkrun milestone so many congratulations to her.

Chris Marriott was first SM30-34 in position 18 in 21:30.

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Running in a pack and finishing closely together were half centurion Jess Tanner 27:13 (3rd SW30-34) Rob Deane 27:21, David Stears 27:26 (1st VM55-59), Michelle Ashwell 27:26 (3rd VW40-44), Vicky Thornley 27:28 (1st SW30-34) and Rebecca White, just missing a PB in 27:42.

Making her parkrun debut, Alex Bayliss finished in 28:22 and was joined by fellow marathon recoverers Kirsty Russell 28:23 and Steve Russell 28:24.

Back home at Gadebridge, D&T had nine volunteers as well as 12 runners.

Coming in third overall and first SM35-39 was Jamie Saunders in 19:22, a new course PB.

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Thomas Durrant was seventh finisher and first JM11-14 in 21:30, while Michael Lamb and Michael Irvine came in neck and neck in 13th & 14th positions in an identical time of 23:15 which is a new PB for Michael Irvine.

Also with personal best times were Wendy Durrant in 24:54, putting her as third female overall, and Andy Mitchell close behind in 24:59.

Kate Crossland made her first appearance at Gadebridge and crossed the finish line in 25:35.

Kerry Hoar ran 26:48, Gwen Mostyn 27:26 and John Cooper 29:44. New member Andrew Guilder completed the course in a new pb of 34:46.

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Acting as tail runner was Rasmi Nanda, continuing his marathon recovery whilst seeing everyone safely home in 50:34.

Volunteering to make everything run smoothly were Jamie Marlow and his children Erin and Lewis, John Jales, John Slack, Richard Stevens, Erica Klein and Gary Sturdy.

At Cassiobury park in Watford, Martin Kerr was first D&T member to finish in 19th position with a new PB of 20:44.

Rachel Lewis was next in 23:01 making her the sixth female finisher. She was closely shadowed by fiancé Duncan Hamilton in 23:02.

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Louise Flower reached the line as 18th female just outside her PB in 24:42. Chris Kitchener was also present as a volunteer.

Maddie Perry put in a fantastic performance at Tring finishing as second female overall and 1st JW11-14.

She was very proud to finish behind an Olympic marathon runner in a time of 23:48. She was joined by her mum Catherine Davies who ran 24:27 for 1st VW50-54 and 4th female.

Five club members were at St Albans with Rob Salt first back in a PB of 22:07.

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Also scoring a PB was Celia Findlay who was 1st VW50-54 in a speedy 22:22. Amy Dilks was another club member to achieve a personal best finishing in 25:26.

On the comeback from injury Annette Howard completed the course in 30:29 and on his 95th parkrun Peter Bailey was clocked at 32:47.