James Cottriall was competing in the Long Beach Marathon, with a 5.30 am start and running in 95% + humidity.
We had some 20 runners competing in the local Alcester 10k race with Andy Lawrence winning by well over 2 minutes. Sadly there is no report on this race.
A couple of our racewalkers were picking up medals at the Midland Masters President’s 5k Racewalk at Warwick University.
Lightning quick Elsie Pipitone topped the podium at the Central Warwickshire Primary Schools Cross Country in Kenilworth recently and Phil Brennan has been selected to represent England at the British and Irish Masters Country International in Belfast next month. Well done both.
It’s the opening fixture of the West Midland Young Athletes Cross Country League on Sunday at Walsall Arboretum. Good luck to all of our juniors who will be competing.
Finally a funny item for all of our seniors who will be competing in next week’s Shakespeare Track Hour. A story of a track 24 hour race no less. The winner ran the equivalent of 7 x 3:10 marathons or 64 x 23.30 park runs back to back.
Take care.
David Jones.
5.30am start !
Long Beach Marathon
Report – James Cottriall
What a race! Long Beach Marathon was a truly magnificent, yet grueling experience.
An early 5:30am start to beat the extreme heat, the first half of the race was run under darkness, creating a brilliant atmosphere with the street lights guiding us along the city course before heading to the beach. The humidity exceeded 95% so unfortunately we could not even see the ocean whilst running along the beach path taking us from miles 6-10.
Pancake flat for the first 13.1 miles, the pace seemed manageable and sustainable. I had set out to better my London Marathon time of 2:45:00 by a single second to qualify for Berlin as a faster runner, but at the 20-mile marker the dehydration caught up with me.
For the first time in my running, I hit the wall, hard. The pace dropped but I stuck with it, pushing on despite every part of me screaming to stop.
Ultimately, I came in 20th out of 3,450 finishers and tucked in at 2:49:58, my fourth sub 2:50 marathon in a row. Whilst not enough for Berlin, I am extremely proud of this performance, showing good resilience and persistence in very tough conditions.
My sights have now turned to Manchester in April 2025!
Andy Lawrence
Andy won last Sunday’s Alcester 10k by the comfortable margin of 2:22 with is time of 31:53.
Alcester 10k
Fresh from breaking the club’s marathon record 7 days prior to this race, Andy Lawrence comfortably won the Alcester 10k in a time of 31:53, well over 2 minutes ahead of the 2nd placed runner.
There were successes for a couple of our junior runners also with two of our U15 road runners having excellent runs.
Will Hovell was 1st junior U18 to finish in a time of 37.57, finishing in 24th place overall. Marijke Tear-Verweij was 2nd U18 female finisher and 3rd overall female with a time of 39:48 to finish in 50th place overall.
Other top 30 finishers from the club were Ade Mason (16th – 36:53) and in form James Lake (26th – 38:02).
A quick glance at the results shows some 20 of our club members were among the 1046 finishers.
Sadly no race reports though, which is a shame.
For the full results please follow the link below:
There was success for 2 of our racewalkers last Sunday at this event with Gemma Smith claiming the gold medal in her W50 age category and Paul Hawkins silver in his M65 category.
A determined Elsie Pipatone
Top of the podium
Elsie Pipitone ran in the Central Warwickshire Primary Schools Cross Country in Kenilworth recently. She upgraded her 2ndplace from last year, beating last year’s winner by over 20 seconds to finish in 1st place this time around in the U11 Girls race.
Well done Elsie.
It bodes well for this Sunday’s opening league fixture at Walsall Arboretum.
England’s Calling.
Word reaches me that club member Phil Brennan has been called up to present England in the British and Irish Masters Cross Country International in Belfast on 16th November.
Well done Phil
This made me smile.
For those of you who are competing in next week’s track hour, how do you fancy a 24hr track race ? No I thought not.
The winner ran the equivalent of 7 marathons at 3:10 pace or 64 park runs at 22.30 back to back.
Some of our junior endurance runners and coaches ready to embark on their Sunday morning XC training in readiness for this coming Sunday’s first league fixture at Walsall Arboretum.
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