Last Weekends Round Up – 2nd & 3rd March

Sorry it’s a little late. Last weekend was a busy one for the Wilkins family. They competed in the Brierley Forest Park Run and the Ashbourne 10k and 5k. Paige and Joe also took on the York Parkrun.

Saturday 2nd March – Brierley Forest Park Run

Elaine writes: ‘Amber and myself took part in the Brierley Forest Park Run. Emma didn’t attend as she was dropped off at Kings Mill adventure Park for her first part of her D of E. Shame she couldn’t have taken part as the weather was actually really good for us despite the weather warnings of rain all day.

We didn’t know what to expect as it was the first time we had done this one. We managed to start right at the very front and Amber as usual just zoomed off into the wind, like a bullet out of a gun. Meanwhile I was plodding along behind her, in the dust that she created. Anyhow it was descent weather, the course is lovely and would recommend it. Lovely path all the way round, through a little park, twice round, a slightly undulating path. Very pretty. Anyway Amber came in as 2nd female with an outstanding time of 22.53 and 23rd overall with a field of 196 people taking part. I got 23.10, not quite a PB but 3rd female and 26th overall.’

York Parkrun –  Paige writes ‘After receiving a weekend away to York as a Christmas present from Joe, he and I decided to take part in York Racecourse Parkrun whilst we were there – because why not get up at 7am for a race during a nice, relaxing weekend away?

We’d done a little investigating online of what the race may be like, and from the course records (consisting of names such as Laura Weightman, Jack Gray, Jonathan Brownlee, and Graham Rush), we had an inkling it was going to be a fast course.

It turned out that the course was actually on the tarmac service road around the inside of the racecourse itself. It was 1.5 laps of flat tarmac with very few turns and bends. The weather conditions were almost perfect, with a little headwind along the back side of the course, which then helped you nicely along the rest.

Joe set off hard from the start with an aim to see what shape he was in after his training block for Wrexham Half two weeks prior, and he quickly left the rest of the competition behind him. I set off aiming to run hard, but after not having raced a 5k for a long time, and doubting whether I knew how to pace myself for that distance, I aimed for consistency and not blowing up half way round.

Joe ended up winning the race in 15:29, one minute and 28 seconds in front of 2^nd place. He was happy with his effort after the strain of half marathon training, knowing there’s plenty to go on for the upcoming months.

I finished 3^rd in my age category (103/596) and managed a big personal best of 21:33. After a difficult end health-wise to last year and only having ran consistently for around 8 weeks, I was over the moon with this. Having never ran more than one mile at sub-7 minute miling before, and now running a 5k at 6:49s pace, it’s given me the confidence boost I needed.

Both Joe and myself would 100% recommend York Racecourse Parkrun, and hope to be back there one day in the future.’

Sunday 3rd March was the turn of the Ashbourne 10k and 5K

Elaine writes: ‘We had a place in Ashbourne last March but it was cancelled due to snow so this place was moved to today and so we set off again with the weather warning looming over our head.

Its an SBR event that we have done a few times now and really enjoy them. Its set on the Tissington Trail in Ashbourne.

Emma and Amber took part in the 5k and I the 10k. Its a nice run steady uphill climb half way up until your turn around point and then mainly downhill, through the tunnel at the end to the finish line.

It was very crazy collecting your number as it was just so busy with people and the toilet queue as usual was immense!! Anyhow we managed to get to the starting blocks in time, seeing Dan Bladon in the Carnicross 10k on our way. Well done Dan by the way, we saw you.

It was slightly damp but not blowing a gale as we originally thought. the path was not too bad of mud but quite hard running up hill for such a long time.

Amber came in as 2nd female finisher, 5th overall with an impressive time of 23.45, Emma 5th female, 8th overall with a time of 27.19 (taken part in the 5k were 70 people) and myself 2nd female, 17th overall with a PB time of 46.58 and 245 people took part in the 10.’

Great running by Heanor members. Don’t forget if you’re running to get your reports in so we can get them up onto the website.