SATURDAY the 13th wasn’t unlucky for one Dursley Running Club athlete, writes David Durden.

In January 2012 Kate Browning joined DRC, a year land half later she completed her first 1st marathon in Berlin. She recalled that someone mentioned the 100 Marathon Club post race, she said: “I did the calculations and thought it couldn't be done as I couldn't see myself doing more than two or three a year, but inspired by Angie Sadler and Philip Howles, just under six years later I got my vest.”

Kate completed 66 Marathons and 34 Ultras along the way, this included the iconic Comrades Marathon in South Africa, the 108 mile Spine Challenger, the 135 Mile Glyndwr’s Ultra, most recently she ran the Sharpness 50K which she followed up with the Jurassic 100, she was first woman home in the Sharpness event and this reflected the quality of her runs over the years wining or placing highly in the female category and often winning her age category. She completed her 100th Marathon at the Hallow 12 Parish Challenge in Worcester picking up her much coveted and richly deserved 100 Marathon vest after completing the 26.2 miles in just under 7 hours. She was joined in the 100 Club by Quentin Somerset DRC member and leading light of New Berkeley Harriers. He completed his 99th and 100th marathons on the Saturday and Sunday completing the Race to the Stones in the process. Both inspirational figures in the local running both helping to encourage active lifestyles in our local communities.

Meanwhile, three DRC Triathletes completing in the Bolton IronMan Event. Damian Lai, Ray Williams and Richard Lewis, were on the start line, Lewis Headmaster of the Local Peak Academy aiming to complete his first Ironman. For Marathon man Lai it was another test of his endurance capabilities. Ray Williams was returning to the event having recovered from serious shoulder injury in 2018 that impacts on both his swimming and his ability to get in the best position on his bike. The organisers warmed the competitors up on the Friday with a night-time 5K run, they also decided to make an already challenging bike course even harder, this lead to a number of crashes and competitors being unable to finish. However, the Dursley trio managed to survive the cycle, Lai was able to peg back some time on Williams showing the progress his has made on two wheels over the last 18 months, he then put his marathon running experiences to good effect pulling back the time Williams had taken out of him on the swim. It was close but Lai finished first for DRC just under 4 minutes ahead of Williams in a total time of 15 hours and twenty-three minutes. Williams was a very impressive 7th in his age category.

Results:

Swim T1 Bike T2 Run Overall Pos Cat

Damian Lai 01:54:32 08:38 07:54:08 10:20 05:15:44 15:23:23 1063 184 (40-44)

Ray Williams 01:25:15 08:35 07:57:02 11:45 05:44:25 15:27:02 1081 7 (60-64)

Richard Lewis 01:12:19 09:47 08:38:51 09:58 06:04:29 16:15:24 1111 210 (40-44)

At the shorter distance of 1 mile DRC had four athletes at Bourton Challenge this year. Alice Lewis led the DRC team home in at time of 06:51, 8th overall and 1st F60, Annette Helyings followed in 08:05, 118th (2nd F65), John Hieron, 09:15, 131st and 2nd M75+ with Eileen Hieron finishing in 10:21, 135th, 3rd F70+ all walking away with medals for the Gloucestershire AAA Mile County Championship

Thornbury Running Club's 10K event was held midweek and saw a twenty strong DRC entry. Mike Crompton finished in 37:27, 4th Senior Male and 6th overall, with Kevin Jackson , Garry Strickland and Lise Hindsaw finishing within nine seconds of each other in the DRC runners up competition, all running strong races. As ever DRC impressed in the age categories competitions with 12 finishers in the top ten of their categories with Diana Gore and Eileen Hieron winning their respective categories

Results: Mike Crompton, 6th, (4th SenM), 37:27; Kevin Jackson, 52nd, (2nd MV55), 45:09; Garry Strickland, 54th, (3rd MV55), 45:14; Lise Hindshaw, 86th, (4th LV45), 48:18; Paul Dunn, 147th , (22nd

MV45), 54:40; Steve Rugman, 157th, (10th MV55), 55:07; Andrew Ferguson, 160th, (29th

MV40), 55:20; Clare Troy, 172nd, (9th LV45), 56:14; Michelle Ball, 187th, (20th LV40), 57:15;

Katrina Fletcher, 188th, (29th Female Senior), 57:35; Adrian Carter, 222nd, (6th MV60), 01:01:06;

Jackie Pennington, 227th, (38th Female Senior), 01:01:23 Diana Gore, 241st, (1st LV60), 01:02:32;

Steve, Barnes, 258th, (8th MV60), 01:04:08; Caroline Easthope, 261st, (20th LV45), 01:04:18; Sue Carter, 290th , (3rd LV60), 01:08:43; Eileen, Hieron, 301st, (1stLV75+), 01:10:31; Veronica, Higgins, 311th, (7th LV55), 01:13:16; Cara, Zoglowek, 319th , (35th LV45), 01:16:18; Jude, Rugman, 329th, (11th

LV55), 01:18:15.

Relish Runnings Two Tunnels multi event saw 3 DRC athletes running, two in the “Return Ticket” half Marathon, Dave Symonds 02:11:49 241st (53rd M40-49) and Caroline Whitlock 02:30:56 295th (Cat TBC) with one in the Return Ticket 10K Paul Lewington 58:28, 259th (15th M60-69).

At Upton Sprint Triathlon Louse Saum and Leigh Allen were in action with Saum continuing her strong run of results with another age category win and Allen as strong 5th.

Swim T1 Bike T2 Run Total Pos Cat

Louise Saum 15:33 01:52 43:08 01:14 24:55 01:26:45 62nd 1st (F35-39)

Leigh Allen 15:43 01:50 46:09 01:47 31:40 01:37:12 106th 5th (F40-44)