Booth Decorators Road Race League Race 1
The first race of the summer 2012 Booths Decorators road race league was held at Darley park on Tuesday 17th April. The marshals who turned out on a very wet, cold evening deserve a big "thank you". It was hard enough to race in the conditions, never mind stand and guide people, or, in the case of the car park attendants, squeeze as many cars into spaces as they possibly could.
Thankfully, the rain stopped for the duration of the 4.9 mile multi terrain, undulating race. There was a tight squeeze at the start and for the first 100m, before the race followed the path at the bottom of Darley park and then turned right up and over the old train bridge, turning right again along and into the park itself. At this stage all was well.
For some reason, the lead pack ran straight on into the park, while the following runners were marshalled into a left turn and up the grassy hill to turn right onto a path. Halfway along the path, the lead runners rejoined the group only to find vital race positions had been lost due to the extra distance and climb. It was a strange experience having some of the county's elite coming past when normally you don't see them until the race is over! Hopefully everyone accepted the issue and got on with the race.
Once again LERC turned up with 35 members, over 10% of the entrants. Andy Peat was 18th (29:04), and Mark Boot 20th (29:11) as both resumed their battle from the winter league and continued their bid to be first home for LERC. They were followed by Ed Murden (30:27, 33rd), Rob Fox (30:33, 34th) and 3rd MV50, Mark Tilling (31:06, 39th). Dave Boot (31:31, 46th) and Richard Ford (31:38 49th) made up the mens team.
For the ladies team, first home was Sarah Terry who completed the course in 34:03 (107th and 8th lady overall), followed by Jodie Smith (35:55, 159th) and Sarah Priestly (37:19, 198th).
Pbs were set by Mark Boot, Dave Boot, Richard Howe (whose 31:48 and 52nd place was very close to making the scoring team), Peter Webb (33:03, 78th), Martin Matthews (35:25, 142nd), Rachael Hemsley (41:53, 254th) and Sarah Kuehne (43:41, 272nd).
Peter Fowles (39:26 and 235th overall) was 4th MV65 and Pat Allen (43:41, 273rd) was an excellent 1st FV65.
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