Race report – Pam Eardley
Thursday evening was a lovely night and what a good night for the first part of the Spring Treble. I didn’t run any of these races last year being new to the club so not being a fan of hills I wasn’t quite sure what lay in store, but safety in numbers Julie McArthur Lucy Carter and myself said to one another “well I will if you will”. To be totally honest we all run on a Thursday evening anyway so we thought why not have a change of scenery (with a few hills thrown in.)
I arrived just after six to see Richard Shaw and Chris Barlow doing a great job getting us all parked up. Walking to pick up my number and T shirt I bumped into Joyce Edwards who warned me how to avoid a particularly boggy area of the course thanks Joyce. Was nice to see John too . It was lovely to see so many club members marshalling and all part of the organisation which had me thinking perhaps I should of helped you guys and not run it . There was a lovely informal atmosphere and it was great to see so many different club runners, everyone was very friendly.
I made my way to the start and met my 2 running buddies . Deciding to stay at the back we set off at a nice steady pace possibly doing more talking than running but we ladies are good at multi tasking. The course was great all off road and in stony places quite difficult to get much speed up on , well that’s my story and I’m sticking to it. I saw a few fallers and a couple of people who had pulled up so we stopped a couple of times to check the runners were ok.
I did think at one point we seem to be going down hill an awful long time which only means one thing, what goes down must go up.
What a climb it was too and a photographer at the top !!!! Thanks!!!!!Then after that I can’t remember much else I remember Brian who was marshalling spurring us on by telling us we were nearly there !!! We all finished together so we made it around the challenging course. Bring on the next two.
Unfortunately things didn’t finish quite so well for Chris Eardley who decided on a sprint finish and pulled a calf muscle, which possible puts him out of action for a while certainly Milford he will be marshaling now .
Huge thanks to everyone of the Bats too many of you to mention great job
Well, what can I say? The race started wet, then got wetter, then we were absolutely drowned by the rain! It’s so nice to see so many runners from all clubs who were daft enough to race in between the raindrops. A few of us managed to get the obligatory group photo done before the run.
STONE Master Marathoners held their annual awards night on Friday at the George and Dragon, Stone.
While everyone else were preparing for Stafford Half I went looking for additional mileage in preparation for London so booked myself in the Ashby 20. I ran it last year and enjoyed it. I ran Manchester Marathon on the back of the training that I’d done for this race (thanks Julie Ebrey for that conversation). This year Ashby was to be treated as a training run for London. The week leading up to the race was a nightmare; I was working more hours than a factory cat some of which involved ‘lugging’ computer equipment around so no resting for me. I drove to the race alone trying to think of how I felt that the hills were nothing more than little bumps last year and remembered my sprint finish hoping that I could recreate this run or even better it.
The morning of Sunday, 22 March for Stafford half marathon turned out to be perfect running conditions 8° partly cloudy with a fantastic representation from Stone Master Marathoners! There was over 3,000 participants and 500 for the fun run. We had twenty seven representatives from the club, this included members from the beginners group who were participating in their first half marathon to veteran runners of our club including the legend that is Chris Barlow!
The deputy mayor of Stafford Councillor Thomas A Holmes started the race with the countdown at 10 o’clock and we set off – the advice from Bill Clarke was – don’t go off too fast! The course took a new route for 2015 due to the major work carried out by seven Trent Water causing a road closure between Weeping Cross and Milford Common and as such produced many personal best’s from the club. The route took us out on the Newport Road up through Highfields, back along The Wolverhampton Road, up Radford bank to Rising Brook then a long stretch along Beaconside back to pick up the old route into Stafford. The extremely well organised, well marshalled race included water stations in abundance every 3 miles & even offers of free wine but unfortunately no cider! There was massive support from the local community with offers of jelly babies, drumming bands and very loud motivational music.
At the finish you could receive a very welcome free sports massage by students from Staffordshire University for acing calves and collect the bright yellow T-shirts to match the colour of the bananas! Brilliant running everyone very well done!
The weekend of December 7th I put myself up for the Weston Park 10k expecting it all to be on paths, but no – it was about half on paths and half over muddy tracks (do not listen to Dave Griffiths if he finds a race to run). Three members took part with Dave Griffiths 1st for the club in 58 minutes, followed by Anne Griffiths in 60 minutes and myself a few seconds behind. On the same day, Tim Hulse ran the Stockport 10 miles, a race that he does every year, with a time of 1:16:24.
Wednesday 17th saw the annual quest to find the members who can predict and accurately achieve a running pace. The distance for the annual Chairman’s ‘Bare Wrist Run’ is an accurate 4 miles and each competitor is asked to predict their time. Watches are not allowed!
Blimey, another month since my last report and the weather is still reasonable for this time of year! It has been a quiet month for races -with only four to mention – starting with the 6 Dales Challenge: 25 miles over fields and stiles, with both runners and walkers taking part. I remember running this race 12 years ago, getting lost and taking that long to finish that I was asked at the end if I had started with the walkers. Anyway, Tim Hulse recorded 4 hours 9 minutes, with Ann-Marie Mountford, Claire Mackellor and Julie Ebrey all recording 6 hours 52 minutes.
The morning of Saturday 29th November 2014 started on a cloudy grey note but by lunchtime the sun was trying to break through over North Staffordshire for the start of the ‘famous’ Cheddleton 10K race.
Stone Master Marathoners were represented by Kevin Uzzell (first in for the club), Nick Boulton, Julie Boulton (first lady in for the club), Anne-Marie Mountford, Joyce Edwards and Alex Yendole. There was brilliant support around the route including a Scottish piper, happy crowds, and our own families and friends along with the new addition of Noah the puppy.