Week Ending - 2025/11/23

BEGINNERS GRADUATE IN AWFUL WEATHER

Twelve weeks of hard graft finally bore fruit for the latest batch of Badgers Beginners, setting out on their couch-to-5K journey back in September to conclude with a parkrun at Kingsbury at the weekend. The weather on Saturday could not have been any less inviting for the group of Amber Bradford, Sarah Murrell, Izzy Coopey, Michael Moulton, Claire Bradford and Michelle Pearce. With the exception of Claire Bradford, who sensibly took advantage of a late booking to Benidorm, and Michelle, who was unavailable, all the others soldiered on through the cold rain over muddy ground to thoroughly earn their certificates. The parkrun saw a big turnout from the club members despite the weather, showing support for the newbies as well as helping ladies' captain Megan Griffiths celebrate her 250th parkrun. As well as a well-travelled tourist and regular attender, the deputy headmistress is a frequent first-place finisher with 10% of her runs (25) being the best of all females on the day, an impressive statistic. 

The event was won by Ryan Preece in 18:38, a decent time given the miserable conditions and his girlfriend, Liberty Underhill, made it a Badgers 1-2 with her 21:24 being good enough for seventh overall irrespective of gender, a quality performance.  Adrian Payne took 2nd in 19:23 with Glyn Broadhurst, Sam Starkey, Mark Coggan and Rachael Browne all making the top ten in their respective gender categories. 

At Walsall, Dave Jackson ran a creditable 19:15 to finish 8th overall on the new two-lap course. Chris Horton in 18:15 was the quickest Badger of the morning over at Coronation Park, Swadlincote, trundling home in second place yet bizarrely awarded first place due to an admin error! Mark Cox was another to miss out on first, this time at Bosworth, his second place just three seconds shy of the winner, while his daughter Mia showed her burgeoning credentials with a solid operation in 25:11 (fifth female). Kat Wilson looked very good indeed at Bedworth as she romped home in 5th place, and Yvonne Faulkner Grant managed a fine 8th at the home of Lincolnshire horse-racing, Market Rasen.

In the Salcey Forest Petzl night trail 10km, Colin Lees braved an icy, slip-sliding course to finish in 52:12 and with it 14th place, his highest yet. At Birmingham Airport, Judy and Adrian Parkes were afforded the rare opportunity to run the 3k Runway run for Birmingham Children's Hospital. Adrian was flying as he completed it in 14.59, with Judy coming afterwards in 19.20. As an event, many felt it wouldn’t take off, but evidently it did.

Anne-Marie Matthews ran 2:42 in the Clowne Half-marathon, and David Grant covered over 28 miles in the Big Bear Dormouse challenge in 3:58. Frosty and freezing conditions greeted the Nuneaton man in Northamptonshire, who marked the added distinction of clocking up more than 1000 miles for a calendar year for the first time ever. Tanya Murphy (17 miles) and Yvonne Faulkner-Grant (14) both added valuable support for the 50-year-old ace, who is running better than ever in 2025.

A handful of Badgers made their annual pilgrimage to Benidorm to do battle in the half-marathon and 10K event, grabbing some nice winter sunshine in the process. Tamworth AC star and second claim Badger man Matt Scarsbrook ran a sensational 68:54 to finish 6th in a stacked race that was won by another Brit, Ben Connor. Susie Stringer ran a magnificent 99:48 to come within 41 seconds of Esther Holyoak’s longstanding V40 club record set nearly a decade ago in Coventry. In her 8th half-marathon, she took over ten minutes off her old best set earlier this year, to very much become one to watch in 2026. Peter Mann is still battling cancer, but is putting heart and soul into his running. He clocked a quite superb 2:22:18 in Spain, cheered home by a group of friends, some of whom had just completed the 10K, which ran concurrently. Martyn Barrett was first back in that race in a quality 51:26, with Rachel Crump hobbling home in 52:43. Stephanie White broke the hour mark before Claire Bradford dipped inside the 80-minute barrier. Fiona Reidy also ran.