Week Ending Sunday 18th October
NTCH – Not The Cricklade Half
Ladies
| Kate Prinsep | 2.15.27 | |
Men
| Sam Upton | 1.36.56 | SM |
| Luke Edwards | 1.38.37 | SM |
| David Cadywould | 1.39.41 | SM |
| Tom Grantham | 1.41.43 | SM |
NTP10k – Not The Pangbourne 10K (multi-terrain)
Ladies
| Sharon Christie | 1.01.28 | LV55 |
| Jane Colbeck-McKinnon | 1.01.40 | LV45 |
Men
| DanWymer | 49.17 | MV40 |
Saturday October 17th
Newbury Racecourse 10km
| Isabel Stubs | 39.00 | PB, 1st SL 2nd overall |
| Lisa Kay | 42.33 | PB LV35 |
Newbury Racecourse 5K
| Sam Upton | 16.56 | SM |
| Steve Young | 17.50 | SM |
Saturday October 10th
The Run With No Witty Name – 50km
| Tony Beardsley | 7.53.15 |
Sunday October 4th
Virtual London Marathon
| Alan Reynolds | 3.15.01 | |
| George Reynolds | 3.19.19 | |
| Paul Ainslie | 3.37.58 | |
| Aukje Raats | 3.43.18 | |
| James Hackney | 3.52.34 | |
| Michele Hustler | 4.05.19 | |
| Andrew McInyyre | 4.29.00 | |
| Jessica Wright | 4.30.10 | |
| Allison Maybrey | 5.59.38 |
The day of the virtual London marathon dawned cold, dark and pouring with rain…
Nevertheless, James, Jess and I set off with Lisa supporting on the bike. Very quickly we were soaked and had been shin deep in water more than once! Joined by David, we had managed to have an enjoyable first loop.
We set out for the second loop joined by a great group of Witney Roadrunners including Lucy, Rachel, Andy Green, Dan and Sally, (Sorry if I’ve missed you, I’m still feeling a bit spaced out!) The group naturally separated out with James steaming ahead! Jess was joined by Francis and Mel on bikes. I started to feel cold and a bit sick and by the start of the third loop my hip was really hurting. I was very poor company for Rachel and Liam but it was so great to have them with me. Rachel kindly carried my water and gave me her gloves – she had to put them on for me, my hands were too cold!
It was interesting to run a virtual marathon we had plenty of toots from passing cars and saw a few others also doing it which was nice. I found it quite tough but I’m so happy to have done it. I raised £1500 for Brain Tumour research so very happy about that too.
I can’t thank WRR enough for the support. As always, a great club to be part of….
And thank you to Crabby for the photos!
Michele Hustler
Sunday October 3rd
Chiltern Ridge Ultra 50km
| Matthew Lock | 4.21.00 | 4th |
| Lisa Butler | 4.58.00 | |
| Craig Gibbons | 5.12.00 |
Chiltern Ridge half Marathon
| Jane Colbeck McKinnon | 2.23.00 | 1st VW50 |
UltraTrail 50K: Lisa Butler, Matt Lock, Craig Gibbin
Half Marathon: Jane Colbeck-McKinnon
Winning Ultra Team: Witney!!!!!
Sitting in the car in the middle of a field in Wendover Woods at 7:00am when it’s foggy, dark, and hammering down with rain, does make you wonder why we do this to ourselves sometimes. It was so foggy we couldn’t even make out where the registration tent was in the field! When we finally plucked up enough courage to actually get out of the car, our feet sank into the squelchy mud and instantly we had wet feet.
Once we had registered, checked out the competition and visited the loo about 100 times, Lisa and I decided to take advantage of the rolling start and set off at the earliest opportunity. Matt, the cool dude that he is, chilled for a while before deciding he had given us enough of a head start and left 40 minutes later.
The first two miles consisted of an incredibly steep decent followed by, you guessed it, an incredibly steep ascent. These are also the last two miles of the ultra, which meant we had 350ft of climbing to look forward to for mile 31. Cruel.
The route is beautiful (when you can see it) as it cuts through Wendover woodlands and joins the Chiltern Way and Ridgeway. For this year the race organisers had to adapt the course slightly to avoid National Trust land and so we had an ‘interesting’ out and back to Ivinghoe Beacon, where we could see precisely nothing of the view.
My race plan was to run with Lisa for as long as possible, which I did for the first half but whereas I was giving it everything in the first 15 miles, Lisa had another gear and just after half way she decided to use it and I simply couldn’t keep up with her. A short while later Matt caught up with me and after a quick chat, “alright Gibbo!” zoomed off to chase Lisa.
I am very proud to have been part of the winning team, which resulted in Matt finishing fourth in an amazing time of 4hrs 21mins, for his first ultra, with the smallest of margins between him and first place. Lisa decided to do a few more miles than necessary but her 50K time was 4hrs 58 mins, which by my calculation (Strava stalking) made her the fastest women by over two minutes on the day. I finally finished in 5hrs 12mins.
I must also include Jane Colbeck-McKinnon who ran a storming half marathon yesterday on the same course, finishing in 2hrs 23mins with over 1,300ft of elevation.
And talking of pride, the amazing WRR support machine was out in full yesterday despite the horrible weather and so a huge thank you has to go to Sally and Fraser Howard, Rachel Stanley-Evans, Tony Lock, Leigh Butler Jackson, Lindsey Smith, Jane Colbeck-McKinnon, Skye and family! No other runner was lucky enough to have such amazing support out on course or at the finish.