Thornbury Running Club round-up

THREE Thornbury Runners travelled to Worcester on Sunday May 22 for the marathon and half marathon.

Since April 1, race directors have been advised to enforce a UK Athletics rule banning headphones in most road races, and this rule was applied at Worcester.

Not that this affected the performance of the Thornbury lads. Neil Roff ran the full marathon in four hours 11.09 minutes over the two-lap course, with the half-marathon competitors completing just one lap.

Garry Slater ran well in under 90 minutes to complete in one hour 29.06 minutes, in 18th position and fifth in his age group.

Dave Flemington finished in a time of two hours 12.50 minutes.

Liam Jones took part in another 10k race last Sunday, his current distance of choice.

It was the fifth Marlow FM 97.5 10k over a flat but twisty all-terrain course along part of the scenic Thames Path and surrounding area.

This was a more challenging course than his other recent races, and he finished 45th in 48.13 minutes. The organisers of Little Stoke parkrun were concerned that the final event at the venue might attract too many supporters and, responsible as ever, cancelled the run.

Parkrunners will now have to choose a different venue and this they did, and not just in the immediate area.

Locally, at Chipping Sodbury, Anne Palmer ran 31.22 minutes, at Ashton Court Kevin Arnold 23.56 minutes and at Pomphrey Hill Chris Dawes (20.27 minutes) and Becky Griffin (31.08 minutes) both made their first appearances.

Nigel Hale made a return to Porthcawl parkrun where he ran the 5k course in 28.40 minutes, but this time wife Caron joined him, finishing in 31.35 minutes.

Karen Carr returned to Lee on the Solent where she ran a personal best for the course in 26.55 minutes, one of her better all-time parkrun times.