Vale Royal AC Runners

It was a wet morning prior to the start of Sandstone Trail races on Sunday morning.   Everyone was cold and wet and dreading the anticipated mud on the course.  However the rain stopped just before the race and it was a beautiful day for running – if rather wet and muddy underfoot.

A Race

It was an amazing day for the club in the 17.1 mile A-race with individual winners in the women’s and men’s race and a team prize into the bargain!   In the early miles, the race was led by Vincent Van Woerkem and Peter Taylor.   However, Tom clawed up to them on the climb up to Rawhead and opened a gap on the descent.  After Gary Norgrove joined him over Bulkely hill, Tom gained again on the descent, opened a gap and led the race all the way to the finish – winning by a clear margin of over two minutes in a time of 1:59:35.   Vincent followed him home in 2nd place.    A few minutes behind, Goffy and Olivia were having an excellent battle for 14th and 15th places.   Together for much of the route to Beeston, Goffy opened a gap over the muddy fields where Olivia struggled for grip in her road shoes.   However Olivia battled to close the gap over the last few hills and got close to catching Dave on the final run in.   Dave had a much improved race over last year and finished in 14th place in 2:12:42.  Olivia easily won the ladies race in a new course record of 2:12:57 for 15th place overall.  Olivia proudly received her prize - a pile of broken glass – in the victory ceremony (there was bit of an accident!).   Dave, Olivia and Tom also managed to win the team prize – beating Tattenhall into 2nd place and earning some unbroken glassware for their troubles!   Next home in the A-race was Jo Molyneaux – although not racing a lot in the preceding months and still recovering from a cold, Jo had an excellent run and finished in 2:47:15 – a better run than last year in much tougher conditions.  An excellent performance which should inspire Jo as she gets back to racing.   Paul Clutterbuck seemed to smile throughout his race and finished in 103rd position – he clearly enjoyed the race and once again showed how much he is improving as he builds his training up for his next challenge!   Steve Bradshaw brought the Vale Royalers day to a close as he finished in 3:20:22 for 132nd place.   Steve was smiling all the way down the finish and used the race to build in some miles for his marathon training – and he was very pleased with his performance. 

So quite a day for VRAC in the A –race!

B-race

The B-race is a bit shorter than the A-race, starting just before Beeston – for a total of 10.5 miles.   The race was also won by VRAC – George Thompson destroyed the field in a time of 1:09:57 to win by approximately 5 minutes!    He sprinted up the final hills (trying to avoid Colin) and looked relaxed at the finish.   A terrific run by George.  Dave Haines was next home in 1:25:45 for 16th place.  Dave did the race in almost exactly the same time as he did last year in much drier and faster conditions so Dave can be very pleased with his progress.  Initial reports that Mary Tavener had won the LV40 prize turned out be untrue but her time of 1:34:04 and 31st place was excellent – Mary revelled in the wet and muddy conditions (she’s that sort of girl!) and was very pleased with her first run over the course.   Behind Mary was Barry Chambers and Janet Snow who finished in 1:38:58 (43rd place) and 1:45:10 (68th) respectively.  Both enjoyed the conditions and their performance underlined the strong team we put out this year.