The weekend’s racing continued with 9 athletes travelling to Cwmbran for the notorious Bog & Bryn Challenge: the penultimate LONG championship race. First home was Dan Sandford(9th) who finished in an impressive 1:51:44; 12 minutes off his 2013 time despite more Bog & a tough XC in the legs. James Dobbing(11th) was hot on his heels less than a minute behind. Stef Francis was first FoDAC lady in 2:34:34. Other runners were Jules Boon, Michael Marks, David Jenkins, Alan Robertson, Claire Morgan & Jo Babij. All of us enjoyed our day out & there was more cake than even us lot could manage!
Back in the Forest the Mad Dog Jog attracted several FoDAC athletes many of whom were also doing the double & several first time caniXers. This was a brilliantly organised event with celebrity Eddie “the Eagle” Edwards starting proceedings & presenting the prizes of which there were many. Outstanding performances from Jack Fleet 2nd & Marcus Bennetto 3rd. Carmen Rodriguez was first Lady. Other category prizes went to Leyton Fleet, Mark Mathews, Mark Blake, Graham James, Jane Creed & Angela Bowkett. In the caniX race Super-Vets Chris Hawkins & Jacqui Wynds were both 1st.
Meanwhile at Tewkesbury Chris Penny & Michael Jenkins were pounding the pavements in the Guy Fawkes 5. In spite of Saturday’s exertions in Malvern Chris went sub 30 to c0me 19th & Mike was 44th of 370. Further down the field were Angela Sonn, Heather Jones & Sally Taylor
Finally Richard Pegler & Dave Lowthian were racing a 10K in Hereford “organised” by ‘peak performance events’, a company with a poor reputation after a shambolic city debut that was Worcester 10K in June. Unfortunately the company hadn’t learned from their mistakes. Once again a lack of marshals & signage meant the frontrunners including our 2 gazelles went astray. In their own words: “The bloke needs to be stopped: he’s robbing runners.” AVOID this company.