We had a fabulous turnout at the Burton 10K, hosted by Hatton Darts. Warm ups were completed in the rain at the Shobnall Leisure Complex, before heading to the start line, taking participants directly uphill, continuing until beyond half way when, if they didn’t have jelly legs, it was a stomp downhill to a loop of the athletics track met by cheers of those finishing before them.

Despite the tough course which you certainly wouldn’t describe as speedy, our runners weren’t deterred from some tremendous personal best attempts. Mark Parker started proceedings with his 7th place finish, a 2 second PB in 35:27, next was Ramzi Sidani, raising the stakes with a 3 second PB, 12th place in 37:15, and Paul Woods going one (21) better with a 24 second improvement in 38:28.

Not to be outdone by the boys, the girls did their thing out on course, Emily Partridge ran her first 10K PB since joining Ivanhoe in 44:11 and Suzy Parish joined her in an almost two minute improvement running 45:27, our first two ladies over the line for the team. Mark Hoult and Vic Smith joined the PB celebrations running 46:23 and 46:55 respectively.

Plenty more to come yet, Sandra Lawless got speedier by over a minute running 49:20, Lindsay Tilbury found nearly two more minutes of rocket fuel in 49:45, and Alex Gillon and Jeff Cross must have shared a whole box of Weetabix for breakfast, with over 5 mins improvement each, Alex crossing the line in 51:20 and Jeff in 1:03:51.

We had two 10K debutants, Richard Hampson setting a 41:34 benchmark and 49:30 for James Cain. Stacking out the blue team we had lots of talent on show, a round of applause please for Shaun Coulton, Richard Martin, Matt Pleass, Andrew Stanley, Pat Horn, Mark Bradford, Mindy Ashton, Andy Cole, Laura Graves, Sophie Turner, Sue Tait and Martin Yeomans.

Topping up the BDSL updates, a new addition to the league this year we had the Lichfield 10K on the roster. It was lovely to have Lucy McDermott back running, who completed the event in 52:06, Martin Yeomans joined the team in 59:37, we had a duo of Mark’s tied up their laces, Hoult finishing in 47:09 and Bradford in 48:15, whilst Andy Cole was in action once again running 50:31.

Written by Emily Partridge - last updated on 09/10/2023