Bourton 10km - Sunday 28/02/2016
There were lots of PBs and lots of great runs for CLC Striders on Sunday’s Bourton 10km.
With the weather cool and the breeze light, conditions were well set for a quick race on this revamped course, and the sizeable Striders contingent took full advantage.
Leading the club home with an impressive top-10 and sub 33 minute finish was last year’s winner Will Ferguson. The Brendan Ward coached athlete had another excellent race on the Bourton course and finished this year’s race in 6th place with an excellent 32.59.
Next home for the club was James Oram who showed he is in brilliant shape to take 12th place and claim a big new PB of 34:09 in the process, whilst Sam Baylis had an excellent debut with 36:00 to take 24th place.
Behind Baylis, and well within the top 50, there were excellent runs for Jon Howes who set a new PB of 37:18 in 44th place; Chris Hale, who ran his fastest 10km for some time with an impressive 37:31 in 47th place and 3rd in the MV45 contest; and the rapidly-improving Will Pearce who set a new PB of 37:38 in 50th place.
Next for the club was Rich Shardlow in 70th who ran well for a time of 38:31, and continuing his successful return to the racing circuit was Paul Smith who ran well for 100th place and a time of 40:04. Smith was closely followed by Ladies Captain Rachel Vines who ran an excellent 40:16 to finish 8th lady on the day and 109th overall, and John Willson, who bagged a new PB of 40:25 finishing 2nd MV55 and 115th overall.
Men’s captain Joel Freeland followed Willson and had a strong run to finish in 126th place with 41:00, and he was followed by Amanda Steer, who took 1st place in the LV45 category and 145th place overall with a time of 41:48, and by Karlien Heyrman who turned excellent cross country form into an excellent performance on the road with a time of 42:24 in 162nd place.
Other excellent runs on the day were had by Dan Harte who finished in 228th place with a new PB of 45:27; Emma Abbey who took 254th place with a new PB of 46:40; Dave Mayo who ran well to take 289th place with a time of 48:00; Joanna Thomson who finished in 348th place with a time of 51:35, and Charlie Haward who finished in 393rd place to set a new PB of 54:43.
There were 492 finishers in this hugely popular local race, and the winner was Luke Evans of Bristol and West AC.
