Dursley Running Club race reports round-up

The club boasted junior first-timer, George Pitts, and senior debutantes, Rachel Brown, Julie Gowing, Jo Fearns, Martin Bragg and Mark Owen to veterans such as Kevin Jackson and Trevor Lewis, who returned to the fray after a few years away.

Glos AAA had changed the course, with a long steady climb through the woods, the alterations making for an interesting and very runnable course. As Storm Callum headed towards the UK, the runners were greeted with very strong winds and a warm day, with car thermometers showing 22 degrees at the time of the junior races this made the wooded section very humid.

In the girls' U11 race DRC were led home by Holly Clark, with Jess Posektt, Lila and Ruby Health all contributing to the teams ninth place. In the boys' U11 event George Pitts really enjoyed his first outing sprinting into the finish. In the U13 girls' race Lucy Holdsworth was determined to race well, and a controlled run saw her in ninth place for most of the race, managing to hold off a strong challenge in the last 30 metres.

James Durden ran in the U17/U20 race, sticking to his task he also managed a strong finish.

The senior woman, U20/U17L and male veterans over 65 were next. Robyn Jackson (Waite) led the DRC charge with Margaret Jackson returning to competitive running, pushing hard on the first lap. A posse of DRC women followed the leading two with as the race started, including Rachel Brown, Tara Truman, Rachel Brown, Shona Darley, Julie Gowing, Erica Fuller, with Eileen Hieron and Jo Fearns doing the sweeping. Trevor Lewis, participated in the M65 plus event after a seven-year gap in competitive running.

Jackson was an impressive 8th position, Johnson held on after her quick start to place and impressive 2nd in category with Brown having a great debut, not far adrift. The rest of the women’s team plugging away, DRC A team were 13th and the Women’s Masters team ninth. Lewis was first in the MV70 category. The final race of the afternoon was the senior males. Paul Hockings, James Everett and Mike Brown led the way for DRC, Andrew Truswell tempted Dave Durden into a quick start, with Tony Freer maintaining a watching brief. Another DRC quintet of Kevin Jackson, Dave Wood, Martin Bragg, Nigel Sankey and Jon Tudor just behind this trio. Paul Hockings showed his class, finishing 18th and 3rd in category about a minute and quarter ahead of James Everett, Mike Brown was another two minutes back.

The clusters of DRC runners behind stayed together although there was some shifting of positions and Jackson was able to move away from his chasers.

Durden managed to hold Freer and Truswell off in the final. Making his debut for at cross country Martin Bragg was an excellent fourth in category just in front of Dave Wood, DRC seniors were ninth and male veterans eighth.

Hannah Osbourne travelled North to complete the Leicester Marathon. Osbourne has only been training for two years and completed her first marathon, London, in 05:13, Leicester was her fourth. In torrential rain and with the final mile uphill she managed a big personal best going under four hours, 03:59:00. In London Garry Strickland ran the Royal Parks Half raising money for the International Seafarers Welfare and Assistance Network, he ran it in a time of 01:38:18, 1241st position and 201st MV45. Nigel Burford completed his first Duathlon at Bowood despite a quick parkrun the day before placed 11th and 1st in category in 01:28:16. There were just the two PBs this weekend out of the 23 DRC parkrunners. Matt Davies (Kingsway) and Ellen Efford(Wotton) at Wotton. Matt Rogers ran the quickest parkrun for DRC, 19:03 at Wotton (74.9% age grading) and not far behind him was Robyn Jackson (Waite), 20:12 (AG 73.27).

Gloucestershire AAA Cross Country League Race 1 Old Down Country park

Results

Juniors

U11G:Holly Clark,31st, 12:30; Jess Poskett,39th,13:25; Lila Heath, 41st,13:42; Ruby Heath,43rd ,14:08;

Team Result: Dursley U11G, 9th (111).

U13G: Lucy Holdsworth , 9th,14:23

Male U11: George , Pitts , 52nd , U11B, , 12:50

Male U20/U17: James , Durden , 21st , MU17, 16th, 00:36:11

Seniors

Senior Woman; Robyn Jackson , 8th , SenW, 6th, 30:10; Margaret Johnson , 37th , F50, 2nd, 33:59;

Rachel Brown , 79th , F45, 11th , 37:33; Tara Truman , 86th , F45, 12th, 38:50;

Erica Fuller , 97th , F45, 15th, 39:41;Shona Darley , 113th , F40, 14th, 42:12;

Julie Gowing , 114th , F35, 11th, 42:17; Jo Fearns , 131st , F40, 16th, 51:27;

Elieen Hieron , 132nd , F65+, 4th, 51:33;

Team Results:

DRC SenW A, , 13th (124); DRC SenW B, , 27th (296) ; DRC SenW C, , 31st (377) ,

DRC FV A, , 9th , (202); DRC FV B, , 17th (324)

Senior Men: Paul Hocking , 18th , M40, 3rd , 38:50; James Everett, 31st , SemM, 25th, 40:35

Mike Brown , 46th , SenM, 33rd, 42:40; David Durden , 92nd, M50, 11th, 45:11;

Tony Freer, 93rd , M50, 12th, 45:16; Andrew Truswell , 98th , SenM, 52nd, 45:27;

Kevin Jackson , 137th , M55, 8th, 47:52; Martin Bragg, 141st , M60 , 4th, 48:09;

Dave Wood , 142nd, M50, 23rd, 48:13; Jon Tudor , 147th , SenM, 63rd, 48:35;

Nigel Sankey , 152nd , SenM, 65th, 49:24; Mark Owen , 201st , SenM, 78th, 58:32;

Paul Lewington, 204th, M60+ 8th, 01:02:13.

Team Results

DRC SenM A 9th (378 points); DRC SenM B, 20th (920); DRC MV 8th (340)

Male Vet. 65+ : Trevor Lewis , 94th , M70, 1st, 39:25:00