On a
day which saw East Dorset as the wettest place in the country the 10th
annual Wimborne 10 saw its largest ever field (487 finishers) and two
new course records to boot.
In far
from ideal conditions, cold, with persistent rain and gusting winds,
Willard Chinhanhu of Poole Runners and Kairn Stone of Newham & Essex
Beagles forced the pace as Willard managed to beat the previous record
by four seconds achieving a time of 51:37 mins. Amy Chalk of Bristol &
West AC was first lady breaking a course record which had stood since
the very first Wimborne 10, way back in 1998, the new Lady’s course
record now stands at 58:33 mins.
As the
Wimborne 10 had been selected as the race for the 2007 South-West
Championship this brought us our strongest field ever – attracting many
of the finest roadrunners in the south sporting the six South-West
County vests – Cornwall, Devon, Dorset, Gloucestershire, Somerset and
Wiltshire. Dorset won the men’s competition by the narrowest of margins
from Devon. Of the ladies’ teams Gloucestershire were clear winners,
comfortably ahead of 2nd Dorset, 3rd Devon and 4th
Wiltshire who were each split by a single point.
|
‘Glad to see that Barb Frampton's not
forgotten her most effective coaching technique - that kick up the
backside was just what I needed to get me across the line’. Morag
the first to finish on race day. |
We made
a special effort to ensure that our tenth anniversary race was a
memorable one and so opted to give away a long-sleeved t-shirt as a
memento. Hopefully those shirts will see much use over the winter months
rather than disappear to the bottom of a drawer. Matt, Raj’s husband,
did the design which showed St Stephen’s Church and the avenue of trees
at Pamphill.
As we
had due warning from the Met Office of the likely weather conditions a
decision was taken to erect the tents at Pamphill in the light winds and
dry weather of Saturday afternoon. A team of about a dozen of us set to
the task and collectively made light work of it – thank you to all who
came along and gave a hand. The wind picked up overnight, and from about
5am down came the rain which was to remain a constant presence all day -
it became very clear that the decision to put that shift in the previous
day had been the right one.
Dawn
came to Pamphill reluctantly, and at around 6.30am the first cars laden
with WACers started to arrive. The race director for the very first
Wimborne 10 back in 1998 was Morag Day and it was great to see Morag in
the midst of it all 10 years on. In the race’s history there have only
ever been two race directors, Jerry Shield assuming the mantle after the
first couple of years. Neither Jerry nor Barbara and Norman Frampton nor
Jacquie and Derek Sainsbury had ever been able to run in our race
because they had always been involved in the set-up off it. Without the
hard work and resources put in by the Frampton family (including Glyn
and Ellen) in the race’s first decade when our club’s roadrunning
section was much smaller, the race quite simply could not have taken
place.
A plan was hatched to allow Jerry his maiden race (with Stewart Little
assuming the responsibility for the role of race director while Jerry
was racing), and Barbara would get her long-deserved opportunity to run
as well.
Graham
Starmer has been involved from earliest days and was on the race
committee for the very first race – he and Nicki continue to do sterling
work each year processing race entries and sending out numbers.
Shirley
Billington and Julie Mead have the handling of the late entries down to
a fine art – given the weather it was rather surprising how many brave
souls there were this time. Brian Lincoln has perfected the processing of Wimborne 10
results over the years, and although he is not visible to many of us on
race day he plays a crucial role. Brian also updates the Wimborne 10
website
www.wimborne10.co.uk and we have had good feedback from runners on
the speed and efficiency which our results were posted up.
Establishing a race from scratch requires a huge amount of work and it
is important that we don’t undervalue the quality of those solid
foundations laid down by Morag in 1998. Having such a large personal
stake in the event Morag was keen to do the course in this anniversary
year, so at 6.45am she set off with her friend Carol through the avenue
of trees in semi-darkness walking the course’s 10 mile route. It is
fitting that, 10 years on, Morag was first across the Wimborne 10 finish
line on the day, which she did at about 9.30 before taking up her duties
as a race official. At around the same time Jerry was holding his
marshals meeting at QE.
Events
of this size need many volunteers and it is heartening to see the manner
in which so many WACers took up the challenge. It is important that we
all know what our jobs are and then set out to do the best we can.
Personally I found it very rewarding to be part of a team that worked so
cohesively and energetically together for a common goal – well done to
all of you who took up the cudgels in foul conditions. An e-mail sent to
me said, ‘Marshals on running courses are hard. They care.’
One
thing our race has been noted for in the past are the free tea and
cakes – frequently mentioned in reviews on the Runners World
website and much appreciated by many runners. The spread of cakes was
outstanding again this year. Well done to everyone who contributed. We
even had some cakes left and Julie Gosling took what remained down to
Wimborne’s Cottage Hospital where they were gratefully received. Working
in the tea and cakes tent might look like a soft option – as it is under
cover – but as the runners pour in, it gets frantically busy.
Apart
from all those individual contributions let’s not forget a few of the
organizations involved who played an important part: QE Leisure Centre,
QE School, Horseshoe Group, Holt Vale Farm, Broomhill Methodist Church,
Maddison’s Hair Design, Dorset Cereals, Wimborne Town Football Club,
Christchurch Runners were amongst them.
All
that remains to be done now is to attempt to dry our kit out and have
our post-race debrief, as, no matter how well a thing has been done,
there will always be opportunities to do it better next time. Does
anyone have friends in high places – we could do with sorting out the
weather for next year!
Thank
you and well done all in Team Wimborne.
Ian
Kennedy
And
despite all the hands needed we still managed to field a few runners
too. WAC results were:
59 1:03:35 Jerry SHIELD
92
1:06:13 Graham WHIFFEN
133 1:08:50 Peter LEMON
195 1:13:52 Andy HORSLEY
198 1:14:31 Richard ATKINS
226 1:16:52 Philip WHITEHURST
266 1:20:06 Shirley BILLINGTON
371 1:27:39 Glyn DAVIES
405 1:30:33 Wendy KENNEDY
410 1:30:50 Michele WHITEHURST
436 1:35:44 Barbara FRAMPTON
450 1:39:01 Teresa ASHTON
468 1:43:56 Fiona SYKES
488 2:45:11 Morag DAY
Wimborne 10
Results - Click here
for full 2007 results.
