Thornbury Running Club news

THORNBURY’S runners excelled themselves at the 29th Dursley Dozen on Sunday, with some excellent individual results and success in a team competition.

The Dozen is one of the highlights of the local off-road racing season and is a serious challenge for any aspiring trail runner.

The 12-mile race is a very tough combination of hills, muddy trails and some hair-raising descents.

The race starts at the bottom of the very aptly named ‘Hill Road’, where the faster runners try to get to the top in a good position before the first off-road section starts and leads up to the top of Stinchcombe Hill.

The hardest climbs at half-way mark (Breakheart Hill) and at mile 10 (The Precipice) are nearly impossible to run, as the vast majority of runners adopt the fell running technique of leaning forward, hands on knees and pumping their legs while calves quickly fill with lactic acid.

The overall winner was Dan Anderson from the hosts, Dursley Running Club, in a lightning one hour 23:48 mins and his clubmate Robyn Jackson won the women’s race in one hour 41:51 mins.

Despite this being her first appearance at the Dozen and setting off at a cautious pace, Taryn Roberts used the endurance gained through her Ironman training to move past many of the tiring runners as the race progressed.

Taryn finished in a fantastic third place in the women’s field, in what is likely to be the highest finish by any Thornbury runner at the Dozen.

Her finishing time was one hour 46:35 mins and her overall position was 59th including the men.

Rob Cowlard has raced this course on several occasions and had another great performance in a very competitive field, finishing 10th overall and second in V40 age category.

Matt Johnstone and Rob Watkins ran the first three miles close to each other, before Rob opened a gap running over Stinchcombe golf course and extended his lead over Matt going up Breakheart Hill.

Rob finished over five minutes faster than he managed last year in one hour 34:34 mins, in 17th place overall and second in V45 age category.

After struggling up the steeper sections and losing a few positions on both climbs, Matt finished in one hour 37:56 mins and 27th overall.

Dylan Roberts was running in his first Dozen, along with David Beard. They both made impressive debuts in times of one hour 43:08 mins and one hour 46:51 mins, in 43rd and 61st position.

Rob Cowlard, Rob Watkins, Matt Johnstone and David Beard won the men’s team prize for runners over 40 years old, retaining the Vets trophy the club also won in 2017.

Moray Sloan was next in one hour 54:03 mins in 114th, followed by Ian Evans in one hour 58:21 mins in 143rd.

Robert Hopkins was not in racing form and jogged around in two hours 4:58 mins.

There was more Thornbury age group success for Rosina Rowland, who was 2nd in F55 category and 200th overall in 2 hours 6:18 mins. Other results included Nancy Harding 2 hours 15:44 mins in 260th place, Angela Bushell 2 hours 19:12 mins in 279th, Kevin Cundy 2 hours 24:08 mins in 307th, Sonya Bryson 2 hours 24:08 mins in 308th and Hugh McPherson in 2 hours 25:23 mins in 313th.

In other results at the weekend, Jim Godden quickly rebounded after enduring a torrid time in his first fell race earlier in the month. Jim travelled to Devon on Sunday for the 4 Trigs Challenge in Sidmouth. The 4 Trigs fell race is contested over 16 miles, with over 900 metres of climbing over the course. The runners required a compass and map to navigate their way through some of the more obscure parts of the course and Jim made a determined effort to finish 19th overall and 2nd in V55 age category in 3 hours 6:21 mins.

Malcom and Karen Carr were at Thornbury parkrun on Saturday and ran 28:43 mins and 31:12 mins. At Burnham and Highbridge parkrun, Mark and John Grimsey ran together and due to a timing error on the day all 232 runners on the course were awarded the same time of 59:59 mins.