WACers in the Tarrant Valley - 2008

Another glorious day In the Tarrant Valley and an excellent turnout. This race has increased enormously in popularity in the last three years. There were just 56 finishers in 2006’s race, this jumped to 157 in 2007 and in 2008 we saw another big increase – 203 runners.

We used the event as chance to invite runners from Fareham Crusaders (Kim’s second claim  club) to come and experience a rural Dorset race. They came in good numbers and our two clubs made a significant contribution to the healthy numbers on the start line.  There were 25 WACers and 15 Crusaders, which meant that collectively we accounted for almost 20% of the field.

Mark Hitchcott was our first main home.  Cathy Hartle, despite taking it easy in her first run since returning from injury, still managed to be the first WAC Lady in. It was great to see some red-shirted race debuts – well done to Paul Teck and Kevin Elliott.

No way is this race a PB course for 10k, but someone forgot to tell that to Annmarie Pearson, who was running in the village she grew up in. Probably Annmarie has Annemarie Fachiri to thank for the PB as Annemarie F pushed her all the way to the line in another good race.

John Guy has had a frustrating 18 months, having struggled with injury during that time. It was terrific to see him back out there on race day in a red shirt.

For the ‘Crusaders’ their first man in was Mike Harper, who was 6^th in 38:46 and their first lady  - Claire Jeffrey, 85^th in 49:02. Thanks to Kim and Jim Musselwhite of the ‘Crusaders’ for coming up with the idea of meeting up with us and organising the Fareham end of operations. Great credit to Jim in getting so many ‘Crusaders’ there. We are hoping that before too long we will be returning the compliment and going over en masse to one of the Crusaders’ local races. If we manage to equal the numbers they brought to Dorset we will have done very well.

In the junior race Callum Kennedy claimed his first race win in a red shirt. Callum won by a handsome margin. Another great performance came from Hollie Lemon who finished 2^nd in the under-10 category. It is a real shame that the junior race sets off after the 10k race, denying us runners the chance to cheer our youngsters home. 

WAC results (10K)

10 – Mark Hitchcott – 39:39

16 – Jerry Shield – 40:56

19 – Pete Lemon – 41:23

23 – Graham Whiffen – 41:45

25 – Steve Guy – 41:49

34 – Craig Dixon – 43:09

42 – Ian Buckingham – 44:20

51 – Jeff Hinsley  – 45:19

62 – David Wild – 46:29

65 – Nick Solomon – 46:54

78 – Ian Kennedy – 48:09

80 – Paul Teck – 48:22

91 – Tim Box – 49:28

101 – Kevin Elliott – 50:32

103 – Cathy Hartle – 50:36

125 – Kim Jolliffe – 53:07

135 – Julie Mead – 54:18

146 – Bob Caines – 55:09

152 – Guy Miller – 56:01

162 – Wendy Kennedy – 56:47

165 – Annmarie Pearson – 57:41

166 – Annemarie Fachiri – 57:47

172 – Claire Newby – 59:26

173 – Nicki Roe – 59:27

192 – John Guy – 66:19

 

WAC results (1 mile race)

1 – Callum Kennedy – 7:47 (1^st u-15)

9 – Hollie Lemon – 10:37 (2^nd u-10)