Almosts' Christmas period achievements

Despite the dreadful weather conditions over much of the weekend, members of Almost Athletes took part in races throughout the UK with some impressive results all round.

Mark Willicott deserves a special mention for completing the gruelling Centurion Running Autumn 100 on Saturday 13th in 22h:42m.  This continuous, 100 mile trail race consists of four loops to and from Goring and Streatley, and uses sections of both the Ridgeway and Thames Path National Trails.

The Old Down Country Park cross country race in Stroud also took place on Saturday, and was supported by a number of Almosts.  In the men’s race Nick Lewis was first Almost to finish in 43:37, followed by Prash Sripathi in 43:50 and Martin Foster in 45:02. Dave McGrath followed in 46:25, Thom Stephens in 48:28, Martin Thomas in 50:01 and David Garnett in 54:35. For the ladies event, Patricia Peever was first Almost to complete in 31:48, followed by Joanna Wisniewska-Barreto in 35:00 and Ingrid Harris in 35:25.

A group of Almosts participated in the Hope Valley, Woodhope race on Sunday 14th.  Ingrid Harris, Joanna Wisniewska-Barreto and Lucinda Hand all completed the 8.3 mile event within a few seconds of each other with a time of 1:10, and secured 4th, 5th and 6th ladies places.  Hester Coggin finished in 1:15, Lorraine Taylor in 1:17, Alison Hume in 1:27, Deborah Elliott in 1:34 and Catherine Mason in 1:38.

For the men there were four Almosts who finished in the top twenty.  Richard Birch was 6th with a time of 1:00, Prash Sripathi was 8th with 1:02, Nigel Tillott was 14th with 1:04 and Martin Thomas 19th with 1:08.  Also running were Jim Trowbridge in 1:12, Steve Taylor in 1:13, Steve Adams and Andrew Wilkinson both in 1:14, Rob Hume in 1:16, Neil Tring in 1:17 and Kevin Richards in 1:25.

There were several different Half Marathon events on Sunday in which Almost runners took part.

The Eden Project multi-terrain Half in Cornwall was completed by Dave Rogers in 1:47, Catherine Daly in 1:54 and Lepha McCartan in 2:03.

Wan Hartley finished the Manchester Half in 2:21. Peter Hooper was the 2hr pacer in the Great West Exeter Half, Kev Dendy completed the Birmingham Half in 1:59 and Felicity Broom achieved a new PB in the Royal Parks Half in central London with a time of 2:16.

Shaun Carr tackled the Bedford Duathlon which consisted of a 10km run, followed by a 40km bike ride and then a further 5km run, and came home in 2:17.

Further afield, Allan Green was first in his age group in the Palma Marathon with a time of 4:07, while Simon Evans finished the Half in 2:01. Steve Yarnold also took part in the Half Marathon whilst Helen Yarnold ran the 10km race.

Coralie Pearson completed the Bucharest Marathon and Karla Cleverley ran the Half, whilst Steve and Holly Linton took part in the Ibiza European Duathlon.

There were also some terrific results at Cheltenham parkrun on Saturday 13th where two Almosts – Matt Polson and Prash Sripathi – both finished in the top ten. Polson was third overall with a time of 18:56secs and Sripathi came 10th in 20:12.

Richard Knightley gained a new PB with a time of 23:21, whilst both Liam Taylor and Connor Bryant ran the Cheltenham course for the first time in 28:33 and 28:42 respectively.

Jenny Randall was a parkrun tourist in Warrington and finished in 23:05.

Almost Athletes got the weekend started with the Chicago friendship run, attended by Anne-Marie, Helen Fursman, John Galpin, Graham Fletcher, Fiona and Matt Barnes. The Chicago Marathon saw Matt Barnes first in at 3:13, Karen Galpin 3:40, Helen Fursman-Reid 3:53, Anne-Marie Willicott 4:15 and Des Beer 6:35.

In Cardiff, the half marathon was run by Piotr Michalski achieving a personal best of 1:36, Miranda Foster 1:40, David Chittock 2 hours, Ali Shaikh 1:43, Kasha Price 2:37, Chaweewan Hartley 2:15, and Claire Gallagher and Lisa King 2:59.

Rachael Nolan ran the Bournemouth running festival marathon with her Fly2Help bear Douglas, to raise money charity completing the marathon in 5:29.

At the Chester metric marathon, Sarah and Steve Wallbridge achieved 2:36 and 2:33.  The Chester Marathon was run by James Taylor in 3:20, Paul Warren 3:22, Chris White 3:41, Lorraine Taylor and Neil Tring 3:59.

At the picturesque and challenging off road Clarendon Marathon, in Salisbury, Ingrid Harris achieved 3:54 and was 1st in her V55 age group, Debbie Minett achieved a worthy 4:57 running for CALM charity.

Kev Dendy ran the Cricklade 10k achieving a new personal best of 52:14. Andy Ford ran the Cricklade half  marathon in a new personal best time of 1:31, Michael Grant 1:34, Kerry Heath-Smith 1:45 and Neil Harris 1:57

In Santorini, Greece, Rachel Fargher and Malc Smith took part in the 10k trail race.

Allan Green ran the labour of love marathon in 4:21 at the Minet Country Park, Hillingdon, Hayes.

Parkrun tourists saw Helena Youde at the Nose Hill parkrun Alberta, Canada. Norm Lever was at the Wammy parkrun, Newcastle under Lyme achieving a new personal best of 24:04.

Martyn Fisher ran the challenging Wimpole Estate Half Marathon, Cambridgeshire in 1:59.

Lynne Macedo achieved a new personal best of 2:29 at the Oxford Half marathon.

In Walton on Thames, Kathy Haig took part in the Leviathon marathon and Paul Haig the 50 Mile Ultra marathon.

Adrian Courtenay took part in the Devils Aquathon at the Cheltenham Lido, consisting of a 400m swim and 10k run from the Cheltenham Lido to Leckhampton Hill, Adrian achieved 1:40. Jamie Courtenay took part in the longer 2km and 10k run achieving 1:46. Also, attending this event was Lucinda Hand, coming in 2nd Female overall.

Shaun Carr took part in the Storm the Fort, long course duathlon, Shropshire consisting of 21k run, 90k bike, 11k run achieving 11th overall in 6:37.

At the Warwickshire Super Sprint Triathlon, Lepha McCartan took part in her first triathlon, achieving 58:44 and 1st in the Pink wave for Breast cancer.