Week Ending - 2024/09/08

MATT'S GREAT NORTH RUN

Weather-wise it certainly was grim up north at the weekend with foggy, damp and wet conditions making the Great North Run a spectacle best viewed on television but Matt Scarsbrook was one of six Badgers stars making the pilgrimage to Newcastle to tackle the iconic point-to-point half marathon, which ends on the coast at South Shields. The in-form Scarsbrook who has spearheaded his club’s successful fifth consecutive Leicestershire Road Running League title this season, was one of some 60,000 runners taking part in the event. On a challenging course, the Baddesley man stormed to a fabulous new personal best time of 68:12 to finish in the top 40 overall, a sensational result, in far from helpful conditions. 

Former men’s captain Carl Savage clocked 92:53 with a solid effort while V60 ace Nick Miles ran a course-best time of 2:07:31, a terrific run when by rights he should be getting slower. London marathon star Amber Nickless ran 2:14:30 and the genial Terry Argyle clocked a quality 2:26:26 with Vicki Brunsdon running another course best, this time in 2:50:41 to round up a good representation in a part of the country where they are fond of black and white coloured sports teams!

The Ilam Three Peaks fell race saw committee men Danny Warren and Adrian Payne tackle a demanding 6 kilometre course that had significant amounts of elevation as you may expect. Both athletes came in under 50 minutes with Payne taking 15th overall and being the first V40 runner to finish in 45:59. Warren was 30th to finish, his time a gutsy 49:13. 

There were some good efforts at parkrun on Saturday morning. Dave Jackson has upped his mileage in recent weeks and it enabled him to take a podium spot at Kingsbury Water Park, 3rd place in 19:00. Rachael Browne took 4th female in 24:54 and Liz Peel 8th in 25:30 at the same venue. 

Glyn Broadhurst was the fastest of the weekend with his speedy 18:29 at Quakers Walk for fourth place. Megan Griffiths was the joint highest finisher (with Jackson) in 3rd place running 23:00. Mark Repton sped to a class time of 18:47 at Leicester Victoria, taking seventh spot while Luke Bennett enjoyed a cracking run at the new Bedworth course taking 8th place in 21:51. Suzy Farrell ran 26:30 to finish a fine sixth at Rugby parkrun. 

With the results from last weekend's Rotherby 8 race now finalised, Badgers ladies face a straight shootout with Roadhoggs for the second and final promotion spot into Division One next season. Also, there are plenty of Badgers placing in the top ten within their age categories as the battle for individual prizes hots up ahead of the final race of the season, the Markfield 10K. 

Matt Scarsbrook won the Spring league and will finish second in the Summer league regardless of what happens in the final race. Chris Horton leads the V45 category with Glyn Broadhurst (4th) and Dave Jackson (6th) also riding high. Neil Russell is 11th but has raced one less event to date meaning he will undoubtedly be in the mix for honours at the end of the season. Wayne Repton is 6th V40 and Rob Crow 9th V60 while Mick Bailey (6th) and Pete Greenfield (3rd) are going great in the V70 and V75 categories. Keep an eye out for Ryan Preece too who could still feature in the senior men's competition having missed out on the first race of the summer. 

The ladies are well represented too with Megan Griffiths sitting pretty as 7th senior female. Grace Barsby is 13th in her first full season at the club. Victoria Jones is 6th in the V50 age bracket and Megan Church is 5th U23. Joanne Crow has had a terrific season and she is currently occupying the 8th spot in the V45 age category with experienced teammate Liz Peel close behind in 10th.