The final weekend of September was awash with race mania, representation both at home and abroad. Starting with our travelling pack, Den Haag was the location for the weekend for six of our runners tackling both the 10K and half marathon distances in their Sunday plans. Kenny Ashton ran the 6.2 mile event in a fabulous personal best time of 1:08:47. Taking on the half marathon was Andy Cole, running a spectacular personal best by over 4 minutes in 1:35:46, along with Chris Osborne (1:43:33), Mindy Ashton (1:49:24), Laura Graves (1:53:55) and Carolyn Osborne (1:56:33).

The longer distances were all part of a much bigger plan for this bunch on tour, taking the opportunity to double up on experiences over the weekend. Avid parkrun fans may well be aware of the alphabet challenge requiring runners to collect parkruns starting with each letter (excluding X for now!). The team added uiderpark parkrun to their repertoire on Saturday morning, also joined by Peter Graves. The special trip saw Chris and Carolyn complete the full set of letters in style, well done!

On home turf, Tom Potter chose to rep his Uni of Nottingham team but his efforts more than worthy of a mention, stormed to a new personal best round the Robin Hood Half Marathon in 1:17:17, taking 33 seconds off his time in Edinburgh, earlier this year. Alistair Chambers ran a fabulous 1:28:38 to yet again top his age category, and Pat Horn had a phenomenal run, beating his long-standing personal best by nearly two minutes. A finish time of 1:33:03 saw his previous record from Worksop 2017 broken into tiny pieces. Jill Singleton completed our super quartet running 1:57:01.

Cath Watkins was in action at the Maldon Half Marathon, another superstar setting a personal best. She knocked 11 seconds of her high score from Prestwold in February, running a sparkly 1:49:23. At the Ealing Half Marathon, Alan Edwards returned for another year, running 1:48:58. Andy Hough had a great run out at the Rutland Half Marathon, earning himself a great time of 1:42:47.

There’s just one more race to mention from this incredible weekend of fun, keep your eyes peeled.

Written by Emily Partridge - last updated on 16/10/2022