Whatstandwell 5
One in five of the runners in the New Years day Whatstandwell 5 mile road race were from Long Eaton running Club. Ideal weather conditions met the runners tacking the hilly route. The first 3 miles were a constant up, mile four a mixture of a nice downhill and a very steep 400m uphill, with the last mile being an extremely steep downhill.
John Birch, in good form was the first LERCer back setting 32:32 and 9th. This was a good performance as John and his wife Carole had done a duathlon the day before and a 2000m race starting at 11:57 on Dec 31st, finishing on 1st Jan 2008. John took just over 7:30 and Carole 11:30 for the 2k race.
Rich Wilkinson was only 7 seconds behind John for the 5 miles, which was no mean feat as Rich had completed a 65 mile run along the entire length of the river Derwent less than 2 weeks before. Glen Coleman was 3rd for the club in 33:54, with Phil Abbott setting a new course best by 1:30 to set 34:44 and 16th place. Duncan Gedge in his 1st Whatstandwell race had a fantastic run finishing in 39:05 and 35th. Shaun Burton was 5 seconds quicker than in 2007 and Colin Bostock finished 44th. Damien Cowlishaw just missed a new CB by seconds and set 41:35. Bill Shepherd, Catherine Rowe and Peter Fowles all set decent times finishing under 43 mins. Catherine was first lady back for Long Eaton and was 52nd overall, Zoe Fletcher was 58th, followed by Debbie Coleman who was fired up and enjoyed the race, setting a creditable time of 44:20. Carole Birch fresh from her efforts the previous day crossed the line hand in hand with Peter Thorburn, who after recovering from last year’s motorcycle accident knocked 5:30 off his previous course time.
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