Four members of Kenilworth Runners travelled to Malvern, Worcestershire, on an overcast Saturday afternoon, to join 300 other competitors in one of the hardest races in the calendar.
The race started and finished in The Rose Gardens, which lies just above the ancient Parish Church where Charles Darwin’s daughter is buried.
The initial target for the runners was to reach the Worcestershire Beacon which is the highest summit of the Malvern Hills. This involved a climb of well over 1,000 feet following pleasant tracks past St. Anne’s Well. The climb is fairly gradual until the last mile when a sharp climb up a rocky path took the runners onto the final climb to the Beacon. Having reached this target the runners descend a hair raising grassy slope to reach the track to West Malvern where at the bottom of North Hill a 200 feet climb up a steep rough track brought them to a spectacular view over the whole surrounding area.
The final part of the race also involves a heady descent past St. Ann’s Well back to the finish. Overall the race involved climbs and descents of about 1,500 feet.
Stan Alexander lead the Kenilworth quartet in with an excellent run to finish in 58 minutes 4 seconds. He was followed by 73 year old Mick Morris in 78.05 who was closely shadowed by Bob Griffiths in 59.00. Pauline Dable finished in 81.00 to complete the foursome.
Once more this long established race was brilliantly organised by Worcester AC with their sponsors Brookshire. As usual it was well marshalled, very friendly and the tea stall at the end was worth all the runners effort.
22/10/06
Abingdon Marathon
Andrew Holbrook of Kenilworth Runners travelled to Abingdon to compete in the Annual Marathon.
The 26.3 mile course was superbly marshalled taking a route through some of the prettiest villages in Oxfordshire. Passing through Abingdon town centre at 6 mile and then the 16 mile markers the support was superb and Andrew had the benefit of his wife and children topping up his reserves with energy drinks, gels and fig rolls. The race concluded with a lap of the Athletics track.
Andrew was delighted with his performance on this daunting course which he finished in 3 hours 10 minutes and 33 seconds. He was even more pleased when he realised that he had improved his previous personal best achieved recently in Paris by an impressive six and half minutes. Up against very stern opposition he finished 103rd overall and 46th in the senior men’s category. He still had enough energy left to muster a sprint finish and gain an extra place in the home straight. The event was superbly organised
29/10/06
Preston Baggott Bash - Winter League
On a sunny and pleasant Sunday morning a hardy group of Kenilworth Runners members travelled to Lowsenford to take part in the first Winter Handicap race.
There are many excellent courses that can be chosen starting at Lowsenford but this one includes an element of cross country in it.
Starting and finishing at the road junction below the Fleur de Leys Public House the route took the eager runners up the steep hill past Bushwood House until they met a left fork down a sharp incline to the ford where things got a bit muddy.
Following the track up hill they past into Preston Baggot Lane and past Preston Fields where after a relaxing downhill to Preston Baggot a right turn faced them with a long steady climb to Kite Green Lane and after another right turn back to the muddy lane and Preston Fields but this time a left turn and yet another long uphill which took them to the finish in Lowsenford.
This was not an easy run with plenty of long pulls up hills but this did not daunt Richard Greenhalf who showed no effects from Senneleys Park the day before and took the overall lead with 96 points.
| Name |
Points |
| A Group |
|
| Mick Morris |
88 |
| Roger Wilkes |
49 |
| Gill Tugman / JulieBevan / Mike Seach |
45 |
| B Group |
|
| Stef Shillington |
94 |
| Mike Cahill |
46 |
| John Woodrow / Will Seeley |
45 |
| C Group |
|
| Rob Thompson |
50 |
28/29/10/06
The Original Mountain Marathon
Showing what a variety of talents there are in Kenilworth Runners and following hard on Mike Johnson’s stunning marathon win at Leicester it was the turn of Graham Gristwood to take the limelight with an equally eye catching success.
Over the weekend Graham and Harold Wyber won the B class award in the The Original Mountain Marathon on their first attempt at the distance.
With a string of imposing world class achievements in the orienteering field this year the Graham and Harold tackled what is arguably one of the toughest challenges in their field, possibly in any of the endurance sports.
Held in one of the wildest places in these Islands, the Galloway Forest, it is a daunting prospect for even those that had run it before.
Trackless and marshy the competitors view is one of hills and tussock grass with not a sign of an easy route. The weather was fine but with some rain and mist around visibility was reduced to about 100 metres which combined with the wild terrain made navigation very difficult for even the experienced competitor.
This is a two day event and the first involved 25 kilometres of moor land which was very heavy going particularly following a few weeks of heavy rain. Unlike a normal race after which the runners go back to their comfortable bed and supper, Graham and Harold had to sleep in the wild moors having carried their supper, breakfast, bed and shelter with them in rucksacks. Despite all the difficulties they ended the day eight minutes ahead of their rivals.
To the distant sound of the swirl of bagpipes they woke at 5.30 am on Sunday morning after a restless night trying to hold their tent down! In good spirits knowing they were 11 minutes ahead of the competition they started well but an unfortunate navigational error took them over a mountain they need not have climbed which cost them 10 minutes. The remainder of the day they fought the difficult terrain constantly looking over their shoulders for the competition but held them off to win the event in the total time for the two days of 8 hours and 34 minutes to finish with an 11 minute lead over the second pair.
Sunday 8th October