Jasmine Mothershaw and Amelie Marshall at Sutton Park.
This week’s newsletter starts off with another appeal for people to volunteer to become officials. This is vitally important if we are not to see our teams run the risk of being excluded from some competitions
It is then on to the Sutton Park Road Relays and Midland 5k Junior’s Challenge where our two senior teams did themselves proud on the challenging Sutton Park course in what turned out to be something of a family affair with Campbells, Brookes and Vickers in abundance.
Following an extremely busy period of racing for our juniors it was a small but perfectly formed contingent that completed in the Junior 5k Challenge with all 5 securing top 20 finishes.
At the Pingles Stadium last Sunday, in pretty much perfect conditions, the outdoor T&F season got well and truly underway with 17 of our juniors and 5 of our Masters/Vets competing and putting their tough winter training in to practice.
There’s a combined Lisbon/Prague half marathon report from Stu George. In Prague he knocked a minute off his previous PB in what was the 5th of 6 half marathons in the Superhalfs Series with just Berlin to come. Well done Stu.
Jennifer Cockayne finishes off her report on the 10 mile Lichfield to Castle Run that she ran with her son and fellow club member Becks Rumsey with the statement “Kudos to the club for being so welcoming and getting us from the couch to 10 miles.” Well done both, that is one heck of an achievement.
Following a period of injury ultra runner supreme Mark Barker was doing what Mark Barker does, that is competing in long and extremely challenging multi terrain events. This time he was taking part in the 22 mile Exe to Axe event which included just the 4000 feet of elevation !
We had 9 members competing in the Regency 10k last weekend with Dean Mawby finishing in a superb 7th place out of over 1500 runners who finished the race.
Last week there was a special edition newsletter appealing for officials.
560 newsletter subscribers opened this, resulting in one person stepping forward to volunteer.
If, as a club, we aren’t able to supply our fair share of officials at events then our teams run the serious risk of being excluded from some competitions.
I know for a fact that on at least a couple of occasions Sparkhill Harriers have been prevented from competing in the Vets T&F Cup Final because they were not able to supply enough officials.
As a club with over 500 members we should be able to find sufficient officials to support our athletes.
If you want to know more information please contact
And so after much persuasion of the club’s senior members, which at times I’m sure felt like coercion, we managed to field 2 senior teams for the Midlands Road Relay Championships held at Sutton Park on Saturday 29th March.
The adult members of the club competed over the same undulating 5k course that some of our juniors had also competed on earlier in the day for the Midlands 5k Championships.
The standard of competition was high with every member of the winning men’s team from Bristol & West AC finishing in sub 16 minutes for a combined time of 3 hours and 5 minutes for 12 x 5k legs.
The victors of the women’s race were Western Tempo who completed their 6 x 5k legs in 1 hour and 51 minutes.
Kicking off for both men’s and ladies teams were “Team Campbell”, with Nick starting 10 minutes before Georgie, who was intent on hunting dad down and did a great job too in the process, setting the fastest time of the day for a senior Stratford athlete of 18:21, with Nick finishing in 21:27.
Next up for the ladies was Alex Brookes running her first competitive race in an SAC vest in a time of 21:27, spookily exactly the same time as Nick had just run his leg for the men.
Alex then handed over to mum Julia 23:59, there’s a family theme to both men’s and women’s teams.
Next it was the turn of Emma Vickers who had already run Stratford Park Run in the morning as a warm up and got round in 24:43. Passing over to the determined Suzi Graham to run our 5th leg (just look at the focus on Suzi’s face in the pictures as she started off) and then on to our very own “Iron Lady” Emma Bexson, 21:37 to bring the team home in a combined time of 2 hours and 17 minutes in 31st place out of 67 teams. A great result for our ladies.
Back to the men and it was Paul Fordham taking over from Nick Campbell and he ran around in 25:31, David Smyth took over 3rd leg for us and navigated the course in 20:18. Next up was Wayne Vickers 20:53 who left his four legged friends who had come along to cheer mum and dad on with Emma. Fifth leg was run by Paul Faithfull who was still a little under the weather having recently had Covid but who ran round in a strong time of 19:42. Jaime Howkins took over leg 6 for the club and was keen to join in the event again having also participated last year. This year getting around in a time of 23:38.
With Jamiee’s leg we were at the halfway stage when it was time to handover to Damian Wheeler who ran around in 21:34, handing over to Selby Dickinson who was also recovering from COVID but keen to not let the team down so that. He finished in a time of 27:38. New member Daniel Webb, 19:24 then took over with us in 54th place, fresh from a strong showing in his first Shakespeare Race the week before. Stuart Lawrence George 19:52 took over leg 10 and was also in our list of injured athletes competing to not let the team down and looking forward to a half marathon in Prague the following weekend if the foot held up.
At this point we were on to our last 2 runners, who were both waiting around for a potential mass start of all the runners from all the remaining teams yet to go. Robin Longhorn escaped the mass start with Stuart’s strong leg and ran to the end in a time of 22:47. Finally yours truly was able to start with a feeling of relief that everyone from SAC had turned up and enjoyed the day, vowing to return next year. My leg was like a Park Run start as there were around 30 of us gathered to start and complete the event for our respective clubs. I managed to get around in 18:57, 1 second quicker than I had managed the year before bringing SAC home in 49th place from 61 teams in a time of 4 hours and 21 minutes.
All in all a great day out and the weather was extremely kind to us too for March.
Next year it would be great to have a strong showing from the club at this event, so I will be stalking you all early. It doesn’t matter how fast or slow you are it’s a great team event and the atmosphere is really relaxed. Although I’m sure if we managed to muster some of our very quick runners we could place a men’s and women’s team in a very strong position.
Midland 5k Juniors Challenge
Sutton Park
Report – Paul Hawkins
To complete a busy period of racing for our junior athletes there were 5km races alongside the senior relays.
Most of our team decided this was one race too far, so we had a small team taking part, especially as there was a fixture clash with a school cross country for some of the younger athletes.
First off were the under 13 girls where Amelie Marshall had another good run coming 4th in 19.24 followed by Jasmine Mothershaw, 18th in 21.56 although there were some doubts over the accuracy of the course for this race, as the leading runners were sent off the course.
The next race was the under 15’s where Joel Ledgard ran well for 14th place in 18.15 while Marijke Tear-Veiweij was 5th in 19.42, just a couple of seconds behind City of Stoke athlete Shauna Hamilton. This was another fine result for her and useful experience, as she plans to look at more road races in the coming year.
Finally in the under 17 ladies Martha Peters was a little under par in 13th place (24.45) but still benefited from the race.
Amelie Marshall in full flight in her 1500m race.
Nuneaton Harriers Season Opener.
The Pingles Stadium Nuneaton
And so it begins – the outdoor T&F Season.
Report – David Jones
The Pingles Stadium is one of my absolute favourite places. I have extremely fond memories of it being one of the first, if not the first, athletic track in the country to hold meetings post Covid. I remember feeling like a child on Christmas Eve the night before being able to attend a pre-booked training session there.
And so it was that myself, along with 5 other of our masters/vets and 17 juniors, made our way to the Stadium on a glorious sunny Sunday last weekend.
Our sprinters, both young and not so young, were certainly out in strength following a tough Winter training season.
In the 100m Arthur Mansbridge won his heat in a time of 12.14 with Niamh Williams (13.55), Rachel Blackwood (14.49) and Carter McKenzie (15.14) also running from our juniors.
There was a strong showing from our Masters/Vets runners with Nathan Darby leading the group with a time of 13.39, followed by Dave Wilson (13.71), Andy List (14.52) and Mark Illingworth (15.14). Those same 4 also competed in the 200m with Nathan returning a time of 26.86 followed by Dave Wilson (27.87), Andy List (29.7) and Mark Illigworth (31.83). Thankfully they all came through unscathed which bodes well for the upcoming Vets T&F season.
Juniors who competed in the 200m were Olisa Odiamma McKenzie (24.31), Sam McKenzie (25.2), Ella Smith (27.94), Niamh Williams (28.11) and Rachel Blackwood (30.55). Olisa also cleared 1.71m in the high jump
In the 300m Elle Weir ran 46.16 with Annabel Stacy finishing in 47.71 and in the 800m Carter McKenzie ran a PB time of 2:29.
In the 400m, multi-eventer Will Hovell also ran a PB with a time of 55.75. Will also cleared a PB height of 1.61m in the high jump. Sam McKenzie recorded a time of 57.59 for the 400m.
In the 1500m we had 3 competitors, with Amelie Marshall running a superb PB time of 5:31.33 to finish in 2nd place just 0.35 seconds off first place. Amelie kept to her word by not lapping me over this distance – just. I was fairly happy with my time of 6:27.85, some 4 seconds quicker than I was at Lee Valley in February. Selby Dickinson was making his debut on The Pingles track in this event. Targeting 7 minutes he finished well within this in a time of 6:50.94.
In the field events Annabel Stacy cleared 1.46m in the high jump, while Alice McIntosh threw the javelin 17.11m and the discus 16.00m.
Our junior triple jumpers Matteo Martinengo and Harry Hibbert jumped 11.47 and 10.31 respectively in the triple jump.
The long jump saw a jump of 4.76 from Ruby Edwards, with her younger sister Martha clearing 3.68 just 10cms shy of her PB. finally Lila Gallinagh jumped 4.22m
Apologies if I’ve missed anyone.
So, all in all, it was a very positive start to the outdoor T&F season for many of our T&F athletes.
Job done. Wolves won as well. A good day.
Proudly wearing the finisher’s medal.
Smashed it.
Lisbon and Prague Half Marathons
Report – Stuart George
For those of you that may not know, there is a slightly more accessible way of collecting race medals than the Marathon World Majors. Easier in both air miles and also in leg pain. The Superhalfs series focuses on 6 European half marathons. Last Saturday I ran my fifth in Prague. Already having done Cardiff, Lisbon, Valencia and wonderful wonderful Copenhagen, with just Berlin left to conquer.
So it was that I headed to Prague last weekend after a slightly disappointing Lisbon race and experience 4 weeks ago.
Lisbon is a worldy of a city, as the kids nowadays may say but 4 days of torrential rain could make anything seem pointless and that’s what we got. We got particularly drenched when going to meet the wonderful Lisa Lambourm for pre race pasta the night before. It didn’t help my wife’s mood that the children kept taking off their shoes and socks as soon as we entered any restaurant much to Lisa’s amusement.
For those of you who know me it’s safe to say I can be slightly chaotic. This is further excabated by having 3 young children and my inability to book accomodation without 6 flights of stairs . This combination of chaos led to a major whoopsie of mine by leaving my watch charging in the apartment and with an 7 month old that wakes up 3 times a night the thought of waking my them and my . sleeping wife at 6am led me to head off to the Lisbon start line watchless.
The prospect of running just on feel was liberating but terrifying as I plotted a way to find a Casio shop (at 6:30 am on a Sunday in 2025 not 1985) and or bribe someone to lend me their watch . When unsurprisingly these options didn’t materialize I just had to go it alone. Much to the bemusement of all on the start line who reminded me if it’s not on Strava it didn’t happen.
Lisbon was a fun race and I managed to get 13 seconds within my PB finishing in 1:26:46. Running to feel was definitely freeing but if I’d have just known my actual time at 10 miles I know I would have nipped under that PB.
Which to be honest made it feel like a missed opportunity.
The half itself was quite an ardous experience where you start on the bridge and the price you pay for the most stunning view is to be stuck on their for 2 hours ( did I mention the torrential rain!!!) plus I think for people with slightly longer race times there is an incredibly poor funnelling system. It’s a point to point race so when you finish you have nothing with you, as only about 1 In 20 people are allowed to bring a bag. Just not ideal. All the road closures means you can’t get any bus or tram directly back to the the centre of town or your hotel.
At the finish it got so packed that anyone after about 1:45 actually had to stop before the finish as there was a human traffic jam. How awful imagine if you were on for a PB and had to just stop running with the finish line in sight!!!
But now back to Prague which followed on 4 weeks later. I’d managed to avoid sickness, injury and miss the Heathrow electrical failure two weeks back so PB attempt number 2 was on.
The great thing about the super half’s is the way runners take over a city from all over Europe and the World. There are so many knowing glances as you walk about the city and as I type this in the airport so many running tops and trainers making their way back to Blighty.
So when I arrived into Prague I was pretty chilled.
I was calm and relaxed as I messaged my apartment to tell them I’d drop my luggage at 1pm. This was the last time I was calm as they messaged back saying they have stopped taking bookings from booking .com and cancelled my booking.
Now this is the second time this has happened with booking .com so it’s safe to say I won’t be using them again. I tried not to panic but it was quite disconcerting, the amount of stag dos and runners I’d seen already made me fearful that there would be no room at the inn but luckily I managed to swing a place at the Ibis (legends) and the race, like the show, must go on .
After another pre race pasta with a couple of work pals it’s was already race morning.
10 degrees with clear skies and my mate texting me that there isn’t as many cobbles as I’d been told, meant that I was ready to rock.
As always I struggle to tell you what I ran past as I’m just concentrating on counting those KMs down but the route was great, 3 little hills and 3 u bends the only slight impediment but it is a lovely flat and fast course. The cushioning we have on our trainers nowadays really made the cobbles insignificant.
I had a dream of a race and kept pretty even splits the entire way through untill putting my head down for the last mile . Finishing in 1:25:33 exactly a minute quicker than my previous pb. I was elated . Finishing 498 out of 14102 overall and 59 of 1146 in my age group.
I put it all down the the lovely Kate Sergant’s pre race massage advice of how to warm my legs up. You can even get a free 10 minute massage at the race. It was class l
It was so well organized compared to Lisbon. The chap was holding up my bag for me in triumph when I returned to the bag area. A massive changing area and brilliant after race activities, medal engraving and a race clock where you could get your photo with your gun time added to an amazing experience.
I heartily recommend the Superhalfs as they get you to some amazing cities and make your partner a little bit more onside with your running when you let them know there is a holiday at the end .
Jennifer Cockayne.
Couch to 10 miles in 18 months. Hugely impressive.
Becs Rumsey alongside Jennifer and Robin Cockayne.
The Lichfield Cathedral to Castle Run.
Report – Jennifer Cockayne
Last weekend myself and Becs Rumsey headed over to Lichfield for this race.
We’d booked it in long ago and hoped we’d be ready to do the distance by the time it came round.
It was an early start, parked in Tamworth and caught the coach to Lichfield for an 8.30am kick off. It was freezing!
My son Robin came to join us, it was his first time taking part in an organised run. There were loads of runners on the day, far more than I expected.
Everything was well set up and the organisers got everyone away bang on time. The route went through Lichfield town and out into the countryside, through woods and an MOD firing range before heading into Tamworth.
Becs aced the run and finished well before me and Robin.
Robin has a couple of wobbles at about the 6km point but he pushed through and made it to the finish.
It was an excellent morning out running, perfect weather and an interesting route.
18 months ago me and Bec’s couldn’t run for 2 minutes!
Kudos to the club for being so welcoming and getting us from the couch to 10 miles.
Mark Barker.
That medal was certainly well earned Mark.
Exe to Axe
Report – Mark Barker
After being out injured for a few months at the beginning of the year it was time to get back to a challenging trail event. After much searching, I found the Exe to Axe race, in East Devon!
The race is a 22 mile route along the South West Coast Path, starting on the Seafront in Exmouth and finishing on the beach in Seaton.
What makes this event special is the stunning coastline and the 4000ft of elevation gain!
The race was brilliantly organised and hosted by Sidmouth Running Club. It was a small friendly event, with around 200 runners, mainly from the local West Country running clubs.
The race started at 10:00, the first half of the race from Exmouth to Budleigh Salterton was hilly but comfortable, I was maintaining a relatively good pace for me and keeping up with the group around me.
About 11 miles in, I reached the seaside town of Sidmouth, it was really busy with people out enjoying the sunny, warm weather, giving us runners lots of support as we enjoyed a brief flat section of the race.
It was after Sidmouth where this event gets its reputation, the steep climbs up and down the cliffs did not let up, as soon as I had reached the top of one hill, I was on the way back down to the sea, to climb back up again!
There was little shade, so surprising for the time of year I was struggling with the heat! For the final few miles, I went through the lovely seaside village of Beer and made one last climb before reaching Seaton.
On approaching the seafront I was looking forward to running along a nice flat surface to the finish line, however in one final cruel twist to this race, they diverted us onto the pebble beach with the finish line at the far end, it was like running through treacle to get to that bloody finish line!
My time was just over 5 hours, it was a brilliant event, good fun with great people and hopefully good training for the next event!
Regency 10k
Fewer than usual of our club members competed in last weekend’s Regency 10k with just 9 of the 1556 finishers listed as our club members in the official results.
Dean Mawby had a tremendous run to finish in 7th place overall with a net time of 35:01. Our first lady finisher was Lisa Lambourn finishing well under the 1 hour mark.
Results of those listed as Stratford AC runners in the official results.
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