A massive squad of 31 Ivanhoe Runners took on the final race of this year’s Burton and District Summer League, the Tamworth 5 mile race which started and finished on the track at Tamworth AC’s stadium.

Run over a twisting turning route on footpaths and cycle routes, there were some great performances but the course proved difficult for personal best times. At the front of the field there was a closely fought battle between Michael Trott and Ramzi Sidani, with Michael just edging home first in an excellent time of 29:58 beating his previous best to finish in 6th place seconds ahead of Ramzi, 7th in 30:07. Close behind and also beating his previous personal best was Dave Hobbs, 13th in 31:10 just ahead of Alistair Chambers who was 1st in his age group and 15th overall (31:19). Next came Martin Yeomans, 30th in 33:03 ahead of Kev Wright, 32nd in 34:12, with Becca Hallam seconds behind in 34:22. This was also a new personal fastest time for Becca and brought her home the ladies 3rd place prize.

Another prize winner was Andy Jeyes, 1st Vet65 in 34:31 (35th) ahead of Andy Lindley, 42nd in 35:50 and Damon Bland, 43rd in 35:56. Chris Finney continued his great season finishing next, 54th in 3:15 closely followed by Karen Bell with a great run, 56th and 9th lady home in 37:21. Karen Hartland was next just seconds outside her PB, 66th in 38:50 just ahead of Andy Wilkinson, 67th in 38:57 who just beat his sister Rebecca Wilkinson, 69th in 39:01 and Laura Graves, 70th in 39:02.

Bob White made a welcome return to the team finishing strongly, 71st in 39:28 ahead of Victoria Smith, 77th th in 39:46. Amanda Bradbury and Kev Sanders crossed the line together in 40 minutes dead (80th and 81st) in front of Kev Marsh who had a great run to finish 82nd in 40:07. Karl Savill and Ruth Green ran together and were disappointed to miss Karl’s target time of 40 minutes, crossing in 40:35 (88th and 89th places) ahead of Julia Blewitt-Jenkins who ran in support and finished 91st in 40:49 just ahead of Emily Starkie, 92nd in 40:58. Next came Fiona McKean, 97th in 41:35 and super vet Sally Jeyes, 101st in 42:28. Angela Wheeler and Heather Swan finished together next in 46:22 (119th and 120th) with Andy Pole not far behind in 50:36 (125th) and Julie Henfrey completing the team in 127th (1:00) to round of another successful event for the club. Both teams were third in the league meaning the men’s team finish third overall and the ladies wait anxiously for the overall results to see if they did enough to hold on to their second place behind league winners South Derbyshire.

Elsewhere Nick Teige continued his epic journey of ten marathons in as many weeks, this week tackling the very tough Farnham Pilgrim Marathon for his 7th event. Despite what must by now be very tired legs, Nick had a great race to finish in 18th place in 3:38:00 adding to his impressive fund-raising for the Brain Tumour Charity.

Closer to home two members enjoyed the Full Boar Autumn Sprint Triathlon. First home with an excellent race that saw her finish on the podium as 2nd fastest lady was Ruth Enion (27th overall in 1:26:30). Nick Rowles was making his debut performance in an open water event of this type and did very well to complete in 40th place in 1:32:07.

Over the water in Ireland, Phil Stevenson and Ingrid Redmond ran the Dublin Half Marathon last week, Phil finishing 415th in 1:28:57 and Ingrid 1,934th in 1:45:52, great times for both runners.

Written by Ruth Green - last updated on 23/09/2014