It was a quiet week for athletes from Wolverhampton & Bilston AC after a long summer over various surfaces, there were still enough out there pulling the vest on to compete for the club.
Louise Hackett travelled to Nottingham for their 5000m Track Challenge and was rewarded with a shiny new PB of 17.23.16 coming 5th in her heat and the fastest U20 on the day.
Dan Turner went north to Warrington to compete in the Birchwood 10k but this time he was wearing the blue and yellow of Shropshire rather than the club vest after being called up to represent the county. Dan performed well to cross the line in 22nd position in a time of 35.19.
Our marathon masters were in Iceland to take part in the Reykjavik Marathon, this being number 190 for Dave Joynson and 189 for Gillian Mitchell as they close of their target of 200 completed marathons. Dave ticked this one off finishing in 3.23.16 to take 69th place and Gill crossed the line in 5.33.06 to take 632nd place.
And a larger group went west to Wales to take part in the annual Race the Train race, the plan being to start at Tywyn, run parallel to the railway line of the Tallylyn Railway before both runners and the train take a turn at Abergynolwyn and race back towards the seaside. The added pressure is to return to the finish and cover the 14 mile route before the train pulls into the station. Only one member from the club managed to beat the train, Paul Dean, coming home in 36th place in 1.46.20, Lucy Calrow was leading the ladies race at halfway but the tricky second half of the course saw her fall back slightly to come home in 53rd overall, 7th lady and 3rd in her age group in 1.48.53, Dave Newport was 71st in 1.52.23 on what he said was a non going day, Dan Maskew was 86th in 1.55.46, Dan Vaughan was 103rd in 1.59.13, Simon Calrow finished in 2.07.38 to rake 150th position and Rob Edwards stopped the clock in 2.20.12 in 236th place.
Dave Norman
