After his amazing Outlaw full-distance triathlon effort, Jon
Z took a well-earned rest and did a fairly normal thing by going on holiday.
Relative normality over, Jon then immediately – as in the day after arriving
back home – got stuck in again and competed in the Redcar half marathon. Inevitably slowed by his heart issues, Jon
could not match his previous course best time of 1.36, but nonetheless got
round in a respectable sub-two-hour time leaving many people who are not
reliant upon a pacemaker and artificial heart valve in his wake.
Meanwhile, Steve C has also been in half-marathon mode,
racing in the 13 Arches Trail Half in
and around the lumpy terrain of Radcliffe (pic). Steve describes many of the said
lumps as ‘severe’ so it’s a sure-fire thing – if Steve describes them this way
– that they really are. Not content with the general difficulty level, the
organisers also built in a relentless and seemingly-never-ending uphill finish.
Steve finished, but at the cost of calves-of-stone that took a week to loosen
off. One for hardcases, it seems
For his last race of the season, Steve teamed up with Len
for the Onley CaniX 5K.
‘Muddy’ best describes the event; with the underfoot conditions not helped by a
constant race-day drizzle. Actually, ‘muddy’ is something of a euphemism. Much
of the course shares tracks with equestrian users and – truth be told – comprised
rather more ‘organic fertiliser’ than mud. In spite of the going being
officially ‘soft’ the Steve / Len duo still knocked out a 5 minute kilometre
pace, which helped with the guilt when it came to quaffing unfeasible
quantities of coffee and muffins at the event after-party.
In other running news, Rosie W had a bit of tough time in the Leeds Abbey Dash 10K when a mix up at the start resulted in her
being shoehorned into a pen right at the back alongside various superhero and
Disney characters. Rose spent the whole race frustratedly attempting to make
ground through the 9000-strong field but to little avail.
Unperturbed, Rose turned out a couple of weeks later
alongside Emma S and Mick W to compete in the first of this winter’s PECO cross country series races held at Temple
Newsham, Leeds. This series is an England Athletics-sanctioned team-based competition
and only open to invited clubs. In order to take part, Rose, Emma and Mick all
race in the name of a local club: Ackworth Road Runners. All ran well with Mick
being 3rd Ackworth male home, whilst Rose and Emma were 8th
and 9th Ackworth female respectively. As a result, all ‘counted’ for
the team effort. Mishap of the day was down to Mick when he misjudged the width
of a stile, or his own hips – depending how you see things – and whilst
attempting to gracefully hop-and-shimmy through, firmly wedged himself in a cork-in-a-bottle
fashion between the stile’s posts. It literally took a mighty heave from the
competitor following to free our stranded hero. At least the fire brigade
weren’t required…
