Week Ending - 2024/10/06

BADGERS CHURN MUD AT CHARNWOOD

Several Badgers took part in this year’s 10-mile off-road Charnwood Challenge race at the weekend. And it was Adrian “Payney" Payne who led the way, the Baddesley man storming home in a fine fifth place with his time of 74:57. Payne, who doesn't train for the road, received invaluable in race guidance via his state of the art GPS watch, which cost him hundreds of pounds as well as a probable podium place. 

In addition to the hunky veteran bachelor, Jim Cottom was sending it along with Matt Green, both stars making the giddy heights of the top 40 overall. Rachael Browne spearheaded a trio of colleagues including Jane Barrett and Stephanie White, with a fellow group comprising Megan Church, Sharon Jackson and Jill Miller coming in soon after.

Two Badgers took on the 26.2-mile Chester marathon on Sunday. Ann-Marie Currier famously made her marathon debut at London back in 2022 and here, two years older and now a grandmother, knuckled down to run a personal best time of 4:56:25, a fabulous effort and just reward for her dedication to training. Matt Smith also completed the challenge in his first crack at the ultimate distance. Raising some funds for UK Sepsis Trust, the supply teacher got around soon after his teammate in an excellent 4:58:05. In the metric marathon at Chester, ladies skipper Megan Griffiths produced a superb performance covering the 26.2-kilometre course in 2:09:13 to take 19th place from a field of almost 700, a terrific run. 

Krystal Knight, Helen Eachus and Rick Reilly all successfully completed the Warwickshire Triathlon at the weekend.

At parkrun, there were a number of milestone moments as Andy Smith reached his 350th appearance at Chasewater, the highest of anyone in the club. Mark Repton took first male at Tamworth on his 200th parkrun appearance while Danni Gunn reached 100 parkruns, 12 years after her debut! Lil Souter notched up her 100th volunteer stint, a great achievement and Eamon Thawley ran a season’s best at Conkers. There were top ten finishes for the streamlined Dave Jackson at Kingsbury, Rachael Browne, Yvonne Faulkner-Grant, Carl Savage, Victoria Jones and Rachel Crump while Joanne Crow enjoyed a much-needed break in Wales, celebrating with a career-high 4th place finish at Barmouth parkrun.