From our very own “cub reporter” on the ground Patrick Rennison:-
Hereford turned a shade of green yesterday, in part because of the number of FODAC vests but just possibly, from the looks of envy from other teams as Forest athletes passed them on the first of the Hereford Couriers 5k series. (Actually other teams had some very good results too but I am ignoring them for the moment in the name of traditional bias.)
First Forester back, once again, was Marcus Bennetto in a fantastic time of 17:50 (I’m turning green already).
Close behind were Richard Pegler, 2nd M 40 in a time of 18:16 (we don’t have a picture of his face at the finish line but we can guess Richard) with Dan Sandford 7 seconds behind that (would have been faster still if there had been a couple of mountains thrown in) and Jules another 7 seconds back in 18:32 with a very credible 3rd place M 45 finish and for that matter, ahead of all but three in a large M40 field. Jules was last seen running back around the course and may well be running still.
Oliver Rennison had a thrilling finish in which he sprinted passed a rival to take 1st Junior Male position with the same finish time (19:13) as the other runner, but a fraction of a second ahead at the line. I think we had better start practicing those sprint finishes.
First FODAC woman and second woman in the entire race was Victoria Baker with an incredible time of 19:18 – I’m turning green again – I should say on record here that Victoria is possibly the only Tory I would consider voting for!
Mick Strange and Alan Robertson took 1st and 2nd M60 positions with 20:26 and 20:45. I’m running out of superlatives here but let’s just say that is very good.
Sheryl Hall had a very strong run to finish 1st of 8 in the F45 category with a time of 21:13 which, to put it in perspective, was just 6 seconds behind the 1st F40 place (and ahead of every other F40 competitor) and ahead of all nine F35 runners.
On the subject of F35 runners, Helen Lipscombe finished a very credible 3rd out of the 9 in class and that, despite the fact she has been running a great many long tiring miles in preparation for Manchester. She described her performance as S**T. I’m not sure what she bases that on but if that is S*** we’ll have some of it. Actually, on second thoughts – we won’t, but never the less it was a very respectable time.
The subject of respectability takes us nicely to Margaret Powles who took 1st F55 place also finishing ahead of 6 out of 8 in the F45 class and even splitting the 8 F35 runners down the middle. All that without breaking a sweat.
Vanessa Pegler demonstrated that she is not just Peggy’s wife by achieving a new PB (with a much nicer expression crossing the line) as did Karen Barnett and Kate Burke (new PBs that is but probably nice expressions as well).
Many other FODAC runners deserve mention including Chris Moore (pacing), Jackie Green , Gemma Hewitt (so close to 24 minutes) Chloe Powles and Claire Walby and our very own Pete Compton who encouraged some of the many 0-5k runners by entering the competition himself despite (I hope I can say this Pete) a physique better designed for throwing heavy weights long distances than running. In addition I am told Pete is having problems with one of his knees. Even so, he turned out for the race and even finished 6 minutes ahead of the next runner. Pete, we salute you.
Next Hereford 5k race Wednesday 4th of May. 7:15 PM start. We’ll hopefully see you there.