Week Ending - 2025/10/26

PARKES’ PALINDROMIC PERFECTION AT SNOWDON WHILE NEIL ROSE TO THE OCCASION IN TAMWORTH

Not everyone in Badgers has completed a marathon before, and even less have run a marathon in a palindromic time. In fact, archives show that only once before has this feat been achieved in the club, by Ann-Marie Currier in her epic marathon debut with her superb 5:00:05 in London three years ago. This weekend, in an event characterised by typically poor autumnal weather, Adrian Parkes managed the feat as he clocked a determined 5:05:05 at the Snowdonia marathon. The 64-year-old has excelled since joining the club, taking the one-mile club record (V60) in 2022 and now adding the marathon distance to his already impressive running resume. The wind, the cold, and the hail may have demoralised Joanne Crow, but it did not stop her battling her way to the finish in a highly creditable 6:15, a grand effort and Anne-Marie Matthews, something of an experienced veteran of this event, dug deeper than ever to record a course best time of 6:29 in the filthiest of conditions. 

The Tamworth 10K was back at the weekend, with runners testing themselves over almost six miles of footpaths and towpaths. It was rising star Neil Rose, who very much rose to the occasion, as they say, with a personal best time of 41:54. The flat course helped produce PBs aplenty as in-form Susie Stringer romped home in 45:14, a new best, and Mark Reynolds clocked 48:26 to run the fastest 10K of his life. Carl Ford has been steadily improving all year, and he did it again with a PB time of 58:40, a great effort. Alistair McCallum dipped inside of 50 minutes with a fine run of 49:44.

The Leicester Half Marathon took place too, with half a dozen Badgers flying the black and white flag around the city centre and beyond as the sell-out event took a minor detour early on, causing runners to chalk up some unwanted additional distance. First back was the in-form Adrian Payne, who started strongly but fell away in the second half of the race. Despite it being the second-quickest time of his career, he was left disappointed with his 84:28 given his current form. Fellow key man Mark Cox was just over a minute behind with a solid show, the floor fitting ultra marathon ace clocked 85:48 before Chris Tweed bagged another sub-90 time with a decent run of 88:15. Dave Jackson managed 91:02, another probable sub-90 given the unfortunate routing error. 

Luke Bennett stepped up with a superb 96:34, proving he could be a shrewd addition to the men’s vets team next season. Wayne Fraser continued his good form of 2025 with a classy 97:57, and Danni Gunn ran an excellent 2:14:47 to be the first female Badger back.

Elsewhere, Jimmy Dewis was in action at the Great South Run ten-mile race in Portsmouth, and the intrepid marathon-loving trio of Liz Peel, Karen Thompson, and Serena Baker tried their hand at the Monsal Trail half in the Peak District, finishing together in 2:12.

There were some big parkrun milestones achieved at the weekend, where Paul Restall became only the ninth man at the club to reach 300 parkruns with his trot out at Tamworth Castle. Jill Miller made it to 200 parkruns with her effort at Kingsbury, and super Simon Currier finally reached his half-century. There were top ten finishes for Matt Green, Bill Gutheridge, Dave Jackson, Rachael Browne, David Grant, and Sam Starkey, while the fastest Badger of the morning was Mark Repton, whose time of 18:58 at Isabel Trail parkrun was only good enough for 12th in a stacked field.