New York City Marathon - 6th November 2022
Last week saw the iconic New York City Marathon taking place which, along with the London Marathon, is part of the World Marathon Majors series, with both providing special memories for many Bourton Roadrunners since the early 1980s. Covering the five boroughs of New York City this race provides both deceptive course challenges and a uniquely unpredictable weather system, but it remains as popular as when it was first held 1970.
Bourton Roadrunners’ Kieron James was the club’s sole participant this year, but represented a special occasion; celebrating twenty years since his first running of the Big Apple’s premier race. Veteran runner Kieron maintained a remarkably consistent pace throughout the 26.2 miles, finishing in a respectable four hours and eight minutes. This provided him with an age-calibrated time of three and a half hours, almost identical to his 2002 race time – many congratulations to him.
Cromhall parkrun - HMP Leyhill - 12th November 2022
This week ten members from Bourton Roadrunners were granted permission to take part in the Cromhall parkrun, held within the grounds of HMP Leyhill, for which they were especially grateful to the governor and one of his senior officers, Martin Beale, for facilitating their access to this normally restricted event.
Bourton Roadrunners at Cromhall parkrun, HMP Leyhill
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Blessed with near perfect conditions Bourton’s Mike Smith, who having finished work at 7:30 that morning after his usual night-shift at Stow-on-the-Wold, made light work of the 5k distance, lapping most of the field at least once, to finish in 19 minutes and 22 seconds. Next to finish was Tom Hill, who had proposed the visit, also had a fine run finishing 5th overall in a time of 23:55.
Other Bourton members included Susan Hunt (24:47), Rob Williams (26:18), Gill Carrick (27:34), Louise Hamilton-Smith (28:43), Allie Quinn (28:43), John Gibson (28:44), Lynn Hudson (32:57) and Coral Feenan-Hill (32:58).
Parkrun
Bourton Roadrunners were also taking part in a number of parkruns around the region and even further afield, including:
Harkerville, South African: Gillian James – 33:33, Nicola Patterson – 40:37 and Chris Lynch – 35:01.
Stratford upon Avon: Lucy Hillary – 19:44 (PB by approx. 1 minute), Lorna Shawcross - 24:17 (PB).
Cwmbran, Wales: Jaq Underwood - 25:01.
Cheltenham Pittville Park: Chris Dry – 26:38.
Chipping Norton: Polly Hammond – 54:31.
Highlights
Kieron James returns to New City Marathon to celebrate 20th anniversary of his first participation.
10 Bourton Roadrunners vistited Cromhall parkrun at HMP Leyhill, sharing cake and coffee afterwards.
Mike, Gill, Coral, Louise, Lynn and Susan.
Lorna and Lucy both had brilliant PBs at Stratford upon Avon parkrun; congratulations to both.
Other reports may be found on our recent race reports page.