Lichfield Running Club celebrated members’ achievements over the past year at our annual presentation and social event. It’s also the club’s 40th anniversary in 2023, which gave us another reason to party! We were particularly pleased to welcome founder member and former president, Dave Nason, to the event, along with former chairman, Alan Pritchard. Around 50 members gathered at Darnford Moors Golf Club and were treated to a wonderful evening of food, conversation and congratulations!

Competition winners were as follows:

Men’s Grand Prix
1st: Dave Sanders
2nd: Owen Davies
3rd: Gareth Stubbs

Women’s Grand Prix
1st: Marian Lowther
2nd: Kim Leary
3rd: Alexandria Evans

Bob Connor Trophy (awarded for best age graded performance in the Grand Prix)
1st: Gareth Stubbs
2nd: Dave Sanders
3rd: Owen Davies

Time Trial Series
1st: Ryan Simms
2nd: Nick Parkes
3rd: Owen Davies

Cross Country Series
1st: Nick Parkes
2nd: John Doyle
3rd: Stephen Howard

In addition to these, two awards are given annually: The Dave Nason Trophy for Outstanding Contribution to the club and the Mike Green Trophy for Outstanding Running Achievement. These are decided by members’ votes and were awarded this year to outgoing club secretary, Ann Schwarzenbach and Marian Lowther respectively. Huge congratulations to all our winners! We have welcomed many new members recently, and are looking forward to seeing them taking part in the competitions over the coming year!

The penultimate Grand Prix event of the season, Tamworth 10k, took place on Sunday 15th October, on a two lap route, starting and finishing in the Castle Grounds. With competition for the 2022 club trophies hotting up, six club members took to the course in search of points.

First club member to cross the line (and performing really well in his first year of competition) was Konrad Wainana, in 16th place overall, in a time of 39:27. Konrad was quickly followed home by Owen Davis in 21st (40:32) and Gareth Stubbs (26th – 41:24). Beckie Head-Stubbs was first club female (14th F/106th – 49:52); then came Kim Leary (31st F/158th – 55:10) and Jane Bradbury (78th F/246 – 1:03:39), continuing her return from injury.

Eleven LRC members took part in this year’s London Marathon; there are some excellent achievements to report.

First male competitor to cross the finish line was Dan Floyd, in the fantastic time of 2:36:26. Always aiming high, Dan has set his sights on a sub 2:30 for the distance, so continues to work towards this goal!

Richard Bravington, in his first run as an LRCer for a little while, finished in 2:47:48, despite having to dig deep at mile 18. Brilliant work, Richard!

Next home were Stephen Rivers (2:55:49), Tom Hodgson (3:03:34) and (veteran of many marathons!) Phil Sutcliffe (3:29:02). Hermione Green was our first female finisher, in 3:33:22, in her first time at this event, followed by Tom Widdowson in 3:39:38.

Ruth Kennedy-Green, Radhika McCathie and Hazel Moore, having trained together, supported each other throughout the race, crossing the line in the same time. (4:43:13).

And Claire Wheat, competing in her third London marathon, this time with daughter, Jessie, and running in aid of MS-UK, finished in 5:29:34. As she achieved the ‘good for age’ qualifying time once again, we’re sure she’ll be back next year!

Huge well done to all our runners! Great to see so many smiling faces!

Another event popular amongst LRC members returned over the weekend: The Tissington Trail Half Marathon.

A number of our runners took part in the Saturday and Sunday races. Conditions were excellent on both days, and all those taking part enjoyed the course, which started in the village of Parsley Hay and finished back in Ashbourne, from where they were transported by coach to the start line.

Keith Lowther was the first LRC runner home in the Saturday race, finishing in a 34th place in a PB time of 1:37:25. Next came Stephen Howard (1:49:37 – 84th), then Kim Leary (2:03:35 – 171st/71st female), Phil Gillingham (2:12:51 – 217th) and Kieren Brown, who finished in 2:32:46 (291st/168 female) in her return to competition.

On Sunday, only a couple of weeks after her success in the Great North Run (and on her birthday!) Ali Evans finished in 1:51:07 (82nd/22nd female – PB). She was followed home by Sonia Short (1: 57:04 – 112th/43rd female), Alan Miles (2:02:43 – 138th) and Jane Bradbury (254th/153rd female) and Charlotte Wesley (255th/154th female) both in their first half marathon races, in 2:32:15 and 2:32: 29 respectively.

Yellow vests were prominent at the Lichfield Half Marathon, which started at King Edward’s School, taking in Whittington and Fradley, before finishing back in the city, on Stowe Field. There was plenty of support around the route, and luckily the weather was kind, helping club members to record the following great performances:

3rd: Dan Floyd (1:14:36)
9th: Dan Turner (1:21:44)
21st: Dave Sanders (1:26:56)
4th: Konrad Wainana (1:28:48)
31st: Gareth Stubbs (1:30:42)
32nd: James Coombes (1:31:09)
36th: Phil Sutcliffe (1:33:42 – first in age category)
168th: Beckie Head-Stubbs (1:56:14 – 34th female)

It was a double celebration for Beckie; she received her place as a birthday present, and was delighted with her sub 2 hour finish!

Another Equinox 24 is over! What a wonderful weekend it was!

Our two all -female LRC teams each completed 16 10k laps over 24 hours (from midday Saturday to midday Sunday) covering 200 miles/320km, and finishing in positions 131/735 and 135/735.

They didn’t quite match the distance covered by the male solo and female winners (21 and 19 laps respectively), but ladies’ captain, Lorraine, completed 4 laps (40k), whilst the other team members achieved their own personal goals by running at least one day and night lap around the beautiful Belvoir Castle Estate.

Look how happy they all are – that’s what running with friends is all about! Great work, Team Lichfield!

Well, what a day it was! The long awaited 25th Lichfield 10k finally took place on September 11th!

Runners may have noticed photographers at the start and finish of the race. These are available for free download here: https://mickhallphotos.thesearchfactory.com/…/lichfield…

We also had club member Richard out on the course with his camera. Richard sent the following message:

Well done to everyone who took part in the Lichfield 10K on September 11th; please find a link to the photos I was taking just over halfway round the course. You guys and gals were awesome – jumping, smiling and waving at the camera!

The link takes you to a group of folders where the photos have been split by predicted finish time, which will hopefully help you find yourself. I won’t have got everyone but tried my best to.

https://drive.google.com/…/1ZzVCrjY93IK…

Massive thanks to Richard for his efforts; also, on behalf of LRC, thanks to John, Louise, the 10k and Fun Run teams and everyone who helped on the day to put on such a great event!

There was a great turnout on August 3^rd at Beacon Park to celebrate the kick off of a home and local Commonwealth Games! Thanks to Ladies’ Captain, Lorraine (and Phil) for organising our fun games night, and the George and Dragon pub for accommodating 30 thirsty runners!

After a two year hiatus, Burton 10k returned; the weather could not have been any different from the 2019 race, which ended in a torrential downpour! This was another BDSL event and although we did not have enough runners to field a full team, those who did pull on their LRC vests did the club proud.

Joe Goodwin finished in in 17th place, in 39.02, taking home the prize for his age group. Owen Davies followed in 44.42 (47th) and Marian Lowther, sole female club representative, came home in 1.05.41.

There were good performances from LRC members Dan Floyd (6th, 36.01) and Matt Orford (19th, 39.15), both running for their first claim clubs on this occasion. Matt had been intending to run the race at marathon pace, but like many others, was affected by the heat.

Well done to all our runners; hopefully we will enjoy some cooler conditions this week