Summer 2017 has seen some great running from our club members.

In the off-road series John Hayman, Stephen Rivers,Daniel Floyd and Daniel Hurley won the men’s team competition for LRC at the Staffs Knot, a hilly course that’s a regular on our off road series.

Full results can be found at http://www.staffordharriers.org/staffs-knot/

And in  a repeat result in the Grand Prix series yesterday, Richard O’Sullivan, Brian Sims, John Hayman and Daniel Floyd, also won the men’s team  competition.  Sarah Burton, Cass Jackson and Sonia Short achieved an excellent third place in the ladies’ team competition.

For more information on this race, visit  http://www.hattondarts.co.uk/burton10k.html – race photos can be found at http://www.racephotos.org.uk/

Well done to all our members who took part in these races.

The Lichfield Half Marathon is the 5th Grand Prix event this year and was on Sunday 7th May.  It was a beautifully sunny day, which perhaps was appreciated more by the spectators than the runners, as it was quite warm.

As is usual for this race there was a good attendance from our club, with lots of our runners, some very experienced and some less so, all putting in some great performances.

Well done to our fastest three runners, our top trio of Jons!

Jon Corpe – 1.22.29

Jon Wolfe – 1.23.01

John Hayman – 1.26.13

Well done also to Cass Jackson, our first woman home in a time of 1.47.52

A big well done also to Sarah and Hannah from our improvers group for great efforts on their first half marathon!

The race was not without it’s drama, with an unscheduled train holding runners up halfway round at the level crossing, with many runners held for several minutes.

The full results can be found here:   http://www.stuweb.co.uk/race/1wE/club/7581_lichfield+running+club

See below for more event photos:

Sunday 12th March was our latest Grand Prix Event – the Fradley 10K.

As usual for this popular race, there were plenty of yellow vests taking part, with excellent support from our members who weren’t running and their families.  The weather was warm too, many of our members enjoyed getting rid of the long sleeves for one of the first times this year!  We had some fantastic performances, with the honour of our first finishers going to Richard o’Sullivan, Andy Walsh and John Hayman.  Particular congratulations go to Paul Keighley, who came first in his age category! 

Full results can be found at https://www.stuweb.co.uk/race/1wD/club/7580_lichfield+rc 

Well done to everyone who took part! For more photos see our Facebook page.

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Wednesday 15th February was our first Grand Prix event of 2017 – our 5K time trial.  What a fantastic turnout we had, with over 60 runners out to get their first Grand Prix points in the bag.   Weather wise it stayed dry and cold and the wind stayed away, helping quite a few of our members get personal bests.  Well done all members who took part!

A special mention goes to runners taking part in the current Improvers course, who took part in this event alongside the main club – everyone put in a fantastic effort and we hope to see you all again next time as full members!

As always this event couldn’t go ahead without the help of our volunteer members who marshalled the course and provided a huge support.  Thank you very much.

Sunday 2nd October was the annual Shelton Striders 10K up in Derby, the penultimate event in this years’ Grand Prix.  We had a good turn out as usual, with seventeen members taking part in the course, which is quite flat and can be a good race for a personal best.

Richard O’ Sullivan  took the lead from John Doyle at about 7km to complete the race in 35:45, finishing 9th overall and grabbing the maximum GP points.

Gayna E also recorded a personal best over the 10km distance.  Well done all our members who took part!

Sunday 11th September saw the 21st Lichfield 10K take place and yet again proved to be a fantastic event.

Following the previous days’ near torrential rain, the sun rose on the Sunday morning and stayed there all day.  Conditions were good, bright and sunny, if a little warm for some of the hills on offer.

We had an excellent turnout and some great times.

First male runner back over the line was Chris Jordan of Leicester Coritanian AC, in 32:53 minutes. Chris won the 10K two years ago, and took back his crown this year.  He commented that “the lead runners had started quickly which had pushed the pace of the run – which was well organised throughout with excellent marshalls.”

Sally Hogan of Bromsgrove and Redditch AC was first woman in 40:34 minutes and commented “the hills were good”. 

Quickest teams overall were the Badgers (Males) and Tamworth AC (Females).

A very big well done to all competitors of the 10K.  Another big thank you must go to all the marshalls and helpers of Lichfield Running Club, without whose support this event could not go ahead.  And many congratulations to Cass Jackson, who has successfully taken on the mantle of Race Director and put in so much effort to ensure we had a sterling first year! Many thanks to all involved.

2016 was the first year pacers were provided by the club.  These were a great addition to the event, with lots of positive comments from the competitors finding them really helpful and a great encouragement.  Well done to all our pacers!

If you’d like to see the full results,  go to http://www.chipresults.co.uk/?eventfilter=Lichfield

For race photos go to  http://www.mickhall-photos.com/mp_client/pictures.asp?eventid=0&groupid=4836

The Lichfield Mercury agree it was a fantastic event:

http://www.lichfieldmercury.co.uk/21st-lichfield-10k-is-hailed-a-success/story-29710160-detail/story.html

Well done to all of our members who took part in the Burton 10K, part of our 2016 Grand Prix series.  The course is particularly undulating in the first half, followed by a downhill section, and the last 400m take place on the Athletics Track at Shobnall, finishing on the line.

We had some fantastic results! The full results haven’t been published yet, but John Doyle and Sarah Dauncey both came in 3rd man/woman respectively, and Jon Wolfe finished 8th overall.

Well done to all of our competitors!

Last weekend a team of our members took on the Cotswold 24 hour race, a race to see how many laps each team can complete in the allotted 24 hours. The race started at midday on Saturday 23rd July and the last runner had to have started their lap before midday on Saturday 24th July.

The lap is 9k around the beautiful Cirencester Park and is a mixture of on and off road. The route takes you through fields and woods as well as the Tarmac path that runs through the centre of the grounds to Cirencester itself. The course is slightly undulating with a steady climb at 6k.

Teams are entered in numbers up to 8 and can have male, female, or mixed teams.  Our team went as a mixed team of 8, and team members in running order were:

Ed Coppinger, Alan Pritchard, Phil Sutcliffe, Emma Fennon, Karen Riley, Sarah Dauncey, Cath Dell and Kevin Deere.

Emma Fennon reports,

“The first laps were in the heat and hardwork. Sarah put in the teams fastest lap of 38.36.  We always had a team member running so had around 6 hours between laps to shower, refuel, hydrate and rest.  We completed 29 laps.  We came 23rd out of 255 teams overall and 14 out of 69 in our category.

The atmosphere was great. It’s a great experience to be running the same time as elite runners, ultra marathon runners , and walkers. The night running is great fun and it’s amazing if you are lucky enough to get the sunrise lap.”

Full results can be found at http://racetimingsolutions.racetecresults.com/MyResults.aspx?CId=16269&RId=590&EId=1&AId=77390

More information about the race can be found at http://www.100milerun.com/cotswold-24-hour-race/

Well done to all our members who took part, what a great achievement!