Thornbury Running Club news

THORNBURY Running Club’s duathletes competed at the Castle Combe race circuit last Wednesday.

Siblings Taryn and Dylan Roberts decided to enter as a relay team and, with Taryn recording the fastest female runs of the day, they finished the two-mile run plus ten-mile bike ride and another two-mile run time in a time of 50.15minutes.

That put them second relay team over the finish line and 18th overall.

Meanwhile, Arthur Renshaw finished fourth in the SupVet60 group in one hour 2.43minutes and Graham Bishop was second in the Vet70 class in one hour 21.39minutes.

On the longer triathlon scene, both Richard Phillips and Paul Clark were in Weymouth to take on the Ironman and half-ironman respectively.

In the half-ironman, after a good 1.2mile swim in 36.28minutes, Clark was doing well on the bike until a puncture 10km from the finish took-up valuable minutes.

He recovered to complete the 13.1mile run in one hour 39.16minutes to give him a total time of five hours 26.14minutes.

Phillips had great swim (one hour 1.28minutes) and bike (five hours 55.12minutes) over the longer full Ironman distance of 2.4mile swim, 112 mile bike followed by a full marathon, only losing time on the run, which he completed in a very respectable four hours 33.48mins, yet still finishing in a creditable 11 hours 39.46minutes for the whole course.

Rob Watkins relies on his own two feet rather than getting involved with bikes and water, and, for him, it was the Brecon Beacons 10-Peaks race which saw him tackle a 58km course with over 3000 feet of climbing.

Instead of a mass start, competitors use a ‘dibber’ which they wear on their wrist throughout the race.

The size of a small memory stick, it is inserted into readers at the start, finish and all the check points to record times.

Therefore, times are very accurate, but the runner in front or behind may have started a long time before or after you.

Watkins had a superb race, finishing in eight hours 23.49minutes, but only later realised that he was in fourth place – and half a minute faster would have seen him in third. Perhaps it was some consolation that he was first Vet40 finisher.

Tom Usherwood was the only Thornbury parkrunner at the weekend, and for the first time was able to run it without waiting for anyone else, which was why his time was much better, finishing in 20.19minutes at Stonehouse.