FIFTEEN Bourton Roadrunners travelled to Croatia, where they found warm sunshine – welcomed by the seven supporters far more than by the eight runners – for the Zagreb Half-Marathon and Marathon.

It was the 23rd year of the race, which had a total entry of around 2,000, with around 400 running the marathon.

Susan Hunt ran the half-marathon as a sharpener for the Snowdonia Marathon in two weeks’ time. She finished in a personal best time of 1:41.15 (2nd LV45). Lynn Hudson also ran the half, and overcame the tough conditions to finish in a time of 2:04.19 and to win the 2nd LV55 prize.

In the Marathon, Catherine Wheeler had a strong run to finish first for Bourton in 3:40.52 and Steph Holton was 2nd LV50, smiling all the way to the finish in 3:47.05.

Mike Smith was just coming back from injury so chose to provide pacing and moral support to his club-mates throughout the race.

He kept Susan company for the first half of the marathon, before completing the second half with Steph.

Experienced marathoner Shirley Creed had spent several months coaching Pamela Parton and Gary Holton, who had both targeted Zagreb as their first marathon. Gary’s training had been curtailed by injury but he was able to complete the first half of the marathon before making the tough decision to postpone his debut marathon finish for another day.

Shirley ran with Pamela, mindful of both the heat and the race’s five hour cut-off, and paced their run perfectly to finish in 4:55.11 and 4:55:10 respectively.

The Dennis Abbotts Memorial Trophy (given for an outstanding club trip performance) was jointly awarded to Shirley Creed and Pamela Parton.