Richard runs for D&T in Stateside half marathon

Richard Belsey flew from Heathrow to Washington Dulles International, USA to take part in the Patrick Henry Half Marathon on Saturday.
Rich Belsey at Patrick Henry Half Marathon.Rich Belsey at Patrick Henry Half Marathon.
Rich Belsey at Patrick Henry Half Marathon.

The race features 13.1 miles of rolling countryside and scenic historic districts with a start and finish on the beautiful campus of Randolph-Macon College.

Richard was flying the D&T flag against almost 1,000 US club runners and his time was 2:09:28 placing him 352nd from 912 finishers, 245th male out of 495. It was “definitely worth the 3,800 mile trip across the Atlantic for”.

Richard said it was one of the “hardest runs I’ve ever done” due to 80% humidity on top of a temperature of nearly 30 degrees. Locals boast that Patrick Henry is ‘a beast’ claiming that the hill at the end sucked the final ounces of energy they had.

Casper and Kelly.Casper and Kelly.
Casper and Kelly.

Also in the USA, husband and wife Casper and Kelly Du Buisson refused to allow a holiday to stop them from getting in some race action. Whilst enjoying some time in California they took part in the Conquer The Overlook Climb 5k race on Saturday evening, a 5km run culminating in a tough 282 stair climb to the top of the overlook which provides spectacular views over Culver City, Century City and downtown Los Angeles.

Out of 231 competitors Kelly finished a brilliant 38th with Casper not far back in 56th.

Endurance enthusiast Giles Leather travelled up to the Lake District on Saturday to take part in the St Begas Ultra.

The SBU35 is described as an “as tough as you want it” largely off road 36 country mile ultra trail race, from the start overlooking Bassenthwaite Lake near Keswick to a finish on the west coast. Giles completed the race well inside the 12 hour cutoff in a time of 9:06:47.

Giles Leather.Giles Leather.
Giles Leather.

Possibly inspired by the performances of the Brownlee brothers at Rio two of our members took part in The Hertfordshire Triathlon at Stanborough Lakes on Sunday.

Alan Grover competed in the sprint event and finished in 1:46:48. He completed his 750 metre open water swim in 16:28, T1 in 3:09, 20km cycle 52:40, T2 in 0:45 and the 5km trail run in 33:44. This earned him 8th in the M50-59 category and 50th male overall.

Kate Crossland took on the standard distance triathlon and earned times of 39:57 for the 1500 metre swim, T1 2:52, 40km cycle 1:39:07, T2 2:07 and the 10km off road run in 57:25. This produced an overall time of 3:21:29 and 18th position in a competitive female 30-39 age group and 31st placed female.

On Sunday Annette Howard finished in 59:34 in the London Summer 10k at Regents Park.

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