Most of the club were battling in the first race of the Burton and District Summer League, the Run in the Forest five miler held over familiar territory from Conkers. Both the men's and women's teams had storming races, with both teams winning the league race. For the men, Ramzi Sidani was first home for Ivanhoe in 7th overall, in 30 minutes exactly, hotly pursued by Craig Hinds in 7th in 30.35 and Matt Brocklehurst 11th in 30.48, and Phil Stevenson 19th in 31.36. Behind them, Ivanhoe's first lady home and winning the ladies race outright was Eliza Wrenn, running a personal best 32.06, a brilliant run. Louis Barnes continued the men's strong team running with 20th in 32.50, also clocking a personal best on the process, and then Ellie Armstrong came in a brilliant 3rd overall in 33.49 to keep the ladies well in contention.

Mark Bradford was next back for Ivanhoe, 46th in 34.35, followed by Damon Bland 49th in 35.12, Andy Lindley 51st in 35.27, Patrick Horn 52nd in 35.41 and Martin Yeomans 53rd in 35.47 packing the men ahead of the opposition. Faith Tipper was an excellent 6th in 35.50 and Rosie Dear 8th in 37.25 to get all counting women home in eight places, an amazing team performance. Rosie was also first vet 35, a great run. Between the two, new recruit Chris Trzcinski was 61st overall in 37.01.

Another recent recruit Lucy McDermott ran well for 10th in 37.39, ahead of Karen Bell 15th in 38.34. Tim Moore was 77th in 39.03, closely followed by Rich Hope making his club debut, clocking 39.32 in 79th. Ladies captain Victoria Smith was 17th in 39.35 despite "marathon legs" from Manchester last week, as was Karen Hartland 20th in 39.55. Mark Hoult clocked 40.47 in 93rd, leading home Carolyn Osbourne 27th in 41.09, Peter Graves 106th in 41.33 and Tor Meadows-Evans 41.35 making her 5 mile debut for Ivanhoe. Helen Smith is going really well off the back of training for the London marathon and set a personal best of 42.17 to finish 32nd.

The next two runners home were both making fairly rare appearance racing for the club, Shane Stanton finishing 122nd in 43.08 and Judith Webster-Sanders 38th in 43.14. Lucy Allsop ran 43.52 in 43rd, ahead of Laura Hope making her debut for Ivanhoe Runners and clocking 44.24 in 45th. Christine Ridley ran 44.58 in 52nd, ahead  of Jane Bland and Jenny Hope running together to finish 75th and 76th in 50.31. Julie Henfrey completed the teams, running 1.01.22 in 101st place.

Whilst final results are yet to be confirmed, the ladies won their team event ahead of Hatton Darts, and the men came first also ahead of Hatton Darts. This sets things up nicely for the next BDSL event, the Uttoxeter half marathon where a strong team will be required as South Derbyshire Road Runners will be back at full strength.

Written by Kevin Sanders - last updated on 10/04/2017