Week Ending - 2025/10/11

A WEEKEND OF MAGIC MOMENTS

It is hard to know where to start writing this week’s report with so many epic performances across the land from members of the club. Races have been won, qualifying standards exceeded, club records broken – it really has been monumental for individual achievements this week. 

Let us start in the historic city of Chester, where in-form vet lady Emma Masser took on the MBNA Chester Marathon. Hopes were high for a good time after an impressive training block resulting in a handful of personal bests over shorter distances and a new, more athletic-looking Masser running better than ever in her storied Badgers career. Kicking off at an 8-minute mile pace, things were going superbly for the majority of the flat 26.2-mile course, a route that takes you into and out of Wales midway through. Her halfway split suggested a time of 3:30, which was the stuff of fantasy given her PB, set in London, was 4:07. However, the final 6-7 miles were a real test of character for the Nuneaton lass who, through sheer grit and determination, battled her way through to the finish line on the famous Chester racecourse. She crossed the line in a sensational 3:41:28 (PB) to claim a rare Good for Age time for the London Marathon. Only a handful of Badgers have made it to London via this route, and she joined a select group of club luminaries in doing so. 

Moving over to Derby, Masser’s team captain Meg Griffiths posted the fastest 10K run of her life to finish a magnificent second in the Shelton Striders 10K. When she turned forty recently, it was no secret that she was eyeing up several V40 club records at Badgers, but for the second weekend in a row, she has gone and set a new overall club record as well as a vets one. At the fast and flat urban course, the ladies skipper ran a superb 42:06, which was not only a personal best, but eclipsed Monika Lampart's 11-year-old record in the process, as well as trumping speed machine Rachel Crump’s long-held V40 record set at the Badgers Atherstone 10K in 2015. 

Griffiths’ performance was not the only record-breaking one at the weekend, as over in Leicester, Chris Horton produced a phenomenal display of distance running to finish a jaw-dropping fourth in the half marathon. From a field of approaching 3,500 athletes, the 51-year-old seems to be showing no signs of slowing down as he made light work of the 13.1-mile route starting and finishing in the city’s Victoria Park. It was a lonely old slog for the Atherstone man; however, isolated after the opening fast downhill mile, he effectively time-trialled the remainder of the race with third place being over two minutes ahead up the road. When he crossed the finish line in 75:29, he not only took the race’s V50 prize but broke the club’s V50 club record for the third time this year and the fourth time in 18 months. Joining him for the occasion further back in the field were 100-marathon club stars Karen Thompson (2:07:49) and Liz Peel (2:23:50) along with Peter Angela Cresswell (2:10:39) and Anna Savin-Baden, who ran a marvellous new personal best time of 2:20:08. 

In the 10K event, Matt Scarsbrook led a stacked field through the streets of the city to win by over a minute in 32:03. Now back at Birchfield Harriers, the second claim Badgers legend was untouchable in a rather rapid race. His long-time former nemesis Mo Hussain was back in action for Roadhoggs but could only finish sixth in an event which saw more than 1,500 athletes complete the 6.2-mile course.

Maggi Savin-Baden was in action in the Shelton Striders 10K, coming home in a super Silver Plus standard time of 58:14 to finish second in her age category. Sarah Reynolds and Laura Robinson both ran well to complete the Oxford half marathon in 2:25 together, and Yvonne Faulkner-Grant went further still as she managed 16.5 miles at the Big Bear Robin Challenge at Sence Valley Forest Park in memory of her mother-in-law, Julie, her time just shy of three hours. 

Earlier in the week, Liz Peel, Karen Thompson and Serena Baker, a trio of inspirational women with over 225 marathons between them, tackled the 66th edition of the Dovedale Dash, complete in matching nun’s attire. Running is very much a habit with these three, and they kept the faith right to the end of the scenic yet highly demanding and ‘fun’ (it says here) course, part of which takes athletes knee-deep through the River Dove. 

Parkrun saw some impressive action too, most notably at a windy Long Eaton where the self-styled Swede of Speed Ryan Preece had his work cut out trying to force his planetoid cranium through a stiff oncoming breeze. However, grit is something the Atherstone mathematics graduate has in abundance, and the pre-match 2027 Ball Game favourite dug deep to finish first in a super-swift 16:22. 

There were top ten finishes for youngster Dan Ash, who took seventh male at Kingsbury Water Park as well as Meg Griffiths and Rachael Browne, who were inseparable as they finished in positions 6 and 7, hopefully performing the popular “Six Seveeen!” hand gestures as they crossed the line. As a deputy headmistress and mum of two teenage boys, the duo are no doubt well aware of the craze that has taken the world by storm in school playgrounds everywhere. Janey Barrett and Jill Miller also made the top ten ladies.

At Tamworth Castle, Mark Repton clocked 20:07 to make the top ten while Janet Crumpton and Karen Draper powered their way into top ten spots at The Plens parkrun near Desborough. Glyn Broadhurst ran a sub-twenty time at the inaugural Brocks Mill parkrun to finish tenth, while the returning speed queen Laura Starkey also bagged another top ten slot, this time at Sherwood Pines, Nottinghamshire.