Jamie leads D&T home in Luton half marathon

First home for the club and just getting into the top ten was Jamie Marlow in a good time of 1:21:10.

New member Phil Oddy was second home in 18th, with a new PB of 1:24:11. Chris Marriott had a nice steady run to finish in 27th with a solid time of 1:27:56. Gary Sturdy and Annette Howard earned new half marathon PB’s of 1:56:31 and 2:10:48 respectively.

The Ricky Road Run also took place on Sunday.The course is certainly challenging with some serious hills testing the lungs and legs. Steve Russell was the first D&T runner home in 1:09:19, a 42 sec PB to be 11th MV40.

Hot on his tail was Paul Christie finishing in 1:09:57 as 18th SM with Daniel Griggs in 1:13:54, 27th SM. First female for the club, seventh lady overall, first VW45, running a speedy 1.16.15 was Vikki Johnston. Heidi Greaves and Tamara Frenchum ran together with Tamara helping Heidi to a PB. The ladies finished in 1:21:52 seventh VF35 and 1:21:52 eighth VF35 respectively. Samaritan of the day was David Stears who stopped to help another runner but still managed 1.25.55 and 35th MV50 in his debut at this race. Anthony Raine finished in 1.26.07 54 MV40 for a massive 8 minute PB with Clare Hunt a mere 8 seconds behind finishing in 1:26:15, 7th FS. Completing the line-up was Michelle 1:33:59, just shy of a 6 minute PB to be 22nd VW45.

Not deterred by the fog Richard Stevens, Simon Evans and Alex Bayliss decided to stretch their legs at the River Thames Half Marathon on unday.

The event was billed as a flat one along a mixture of road and river paths starting and finishing at Walton Bridge taking runners through Shepperton, Weybridge and Moseley in between. Richard run a very good race and managed a finish time of 1:49:10 just outside of his personal best. Simon did manage to achieve a PB with a fine run to finish in 1:54:40, Alex had a strong run and crossed the line in 2:12:16.

Alison Clooney joined some of her friends to take part in the Hospice Lake Run on Sunday. The event was held at the picturesque Willen Lake in Milton Keynes to raise funds for The Willen Hospice. There were various length runs to choose from and Alison took part in the 8km run. They made the most of the mild autumn conditions and Alison finished well in a time of 48:53.

Dacorum & Tring AC’s young distance runners did their coach, Mike Dunphy, proud with their excellent show of form in the second NW London Cross Country League Match held at Kingsbury, achieving a string of top 10 placings and one outright win.

Amy Lane (5:46), in her first outing for the club, set the tone for the day with an outstanding run to finish third in the Under 11 Girls race over 1,500m.

In the Under 15 Boys race over 4,000m Kristian Imroth (12:25) achieved his first victory of the season, 47 seconds in front of the second-placed runner. Fine runs from Michael Armstrong (13:35) and Freddie Truman-Williams (13:53), sixth and ninth respectively, secured first place for the club out of 11 teams in the match, and they were backed up in fine style by Haydn Williams (15:08, 21st), George Dowding (15:21, 25th), Fin Wightman (15:23, 26th ), Dylan Alford (16:55, 39th) and Jack Hancock (17:23, 40th).

Aoife Hanling (15:06) and Grace Birdseye (15:35) both had excellent runs, placing third and fourth respectively in the Under 17 Womens race also over 4,000m, in which the team placed second out of seven teams. GB Modern Pentathlete Alex Bousfield (16:13), just returned from a strenuous training camp under the tutelage of Olympic athlete Jenny Meadows, still performed creditably to finish ninth, and tetrathlete Emma Killin 17:29 closed in for the team in 14th place.

Despite still being hampered by an achilles problem, Olivia Edwards (8:51) achieved a fifth place in the Under 13 Girls race over 2,200m, and was backed up by Stella Whitlum (9:36, 15th) and Izzy Painter (9:51, 20th), placing the team fourth out of 12 teams.

Running over the same distance, the Under 11 Boys team Oliver Painter (9:05, 16th) led the team home, followed closely by fast-finishing Sam Day (9.26,20th) and Niall Cassidy (9:45, 26th).

In the Under 13 Boys race over 3,000m Jamie Bailey (11:50, fifth) produced another excellent performance to lead the team home to third place out of 11 teams, with good runs also coming from fast-improving Sam Burnell (12:09, 11th), Jack Raine (12:37, 20th) and Ethan Ives (12:40, 32nd).

Also racing over 3,000m, Lily Boden (13:13) and Amy Cassidy (13:18) showed improved form to finish ninth and 10th in the Under 15 Girls race in which the team placed fifth out of nine teams.

parkrun

On Saturday 35 Dacorum and Tring runners travelled to 8 different parkrun events to enjoy their favourite activity of the week.

Rhys Rowlands represented D&T at Wycombe Rye and came out as first finisher with an event PB of 17:44. Not far away Sophie Morris had an outstanding parkrun debut with a time of 19:42 and was the 3rd lady and 25th overall at St Alban’s. Michelle Ashwell ran at Gladstone parkrun close to her course PB and reached the finish line in 27:22. Erica Klein was at at Hereford parkrun and ran with a Halloween themed skeleton outfit finishing in 27:27. Rob Salt participated at the hilly Tring parkrun finishing in 24:50 while young Timothy Fryer was at the finish line in 28:32.Cassiobury parkrun had two D&T runners as Tim Coysh finished in 21:55 and Rasmi Nanda in 22:51. Alan Grover ran at Sittingbourne parkrun with a time of 27:39.Nearer home Gadebridge parkrun saw a strong contingent of 26 D&T runners, a number of them dressed as Santa Claus to help promote The Hospice of St Francis upcoming Santa Dash. Jamie Saunders was the first member at the finish in 20:11 and was the 4th overall finisher. Chris Marriott finished in 21:18 with Martin Kerr & Michael Irvine following hot on the heels both with course PBs of 21:22 and 21:27 respectively. Chris Kitchener finished in 22:56. Wendy Pearson became the first lady finisher at the event with a course PB of 23:41. Heidi Greaves was the 3rd lady and ran a course PB 24:02. Louise Flower achieved a course PB of 24:50. Mustafa Readdie ran a course PB 25:21 on his 150th parkrun. Charlotte Ashton reached the finish line in 26:05 with Patrick Mostyn and mum Gwen Mostyn finishing 26:41 and 26:59 respectively. Jim Mason reached the finish line in 27:37, Denise Burford in 28:22 and Penny Wallduck in 28:46. Kevin Moore ran 28:53 on his Gadebridge debut for a overall parkrun pb. Richard Stevens finished in 29:05 followed by Jessica Morrison in 29:23. Julie Regan finished in 30:17 followed closely by Angela Aikman in 30:24. Brothers Henry and William Ashton finished together in 30:28 followed by Star Phillips in 30:36. Louise Tainsh achieved a course PB of 30:55 and Charlotte McGahern improved her time to 33:56 on only her second parkrun. Alexis Bunce brought the club home in 34:35. There was no shortage of roadrunners volunteering this week with Charlotte Ashton, Danielle Kerr, John Jales, Julie Groves, Kirsty Russell, Michael Lamb, Steve Russell, Rob Davies, Tony Reeve, Robert Jackson, Jamie, Erin and Lewis Marlow all at Gadebridge parkrun and Danny Wells doing his bit for the cause at Aldenham parkrun.