After the flurry of activity last week, this bank holiday week was a lot quieter for racing.
Harwich Parkrun
Claudine Benstead headed off to her old stomping ground of Essex to take part in the Harwich Parkrun. We don’t often include Parkruns in our report as lots of runners do them every week, but this is an exception as Claudine came home first female in a time of 20:10 and gained an Age Grading Record for this course of 99%.
All parkrun events use Age Grading to help park runners compare results.
Age Grading takes your time and uses the world record time for your sex and age group to produce a score (as a percentage). This score allows you to compare your personal performance against other people’s performances even though they might be a different age and a different sex to you – the higher the score the better the performance. So, Claudine did exceptionally well to get a 99% Age Grading!
Langstone Coronation Fell Race
Saturday saw the return of the Langstone Coronation Fell Race, this race is the third event in the Dartmoor Fell Series. It turned out to be an eventful day out on the hills in very warm sunshine, with the runners glad of the gentle, slightly cooling breeze on the moor.
The juniors ran first heading uphill out of Peter Tavy to complete what should have been a 2.5km route. All but the lead runner missed the marshal and continued uphill towards Cox Tor, so they ran further than planned! ORC Junior Alistair Taylor was second home (first of the group who ran the extra distance). Great running by him.
The senior race was next, starting from the bottom of the valley in Peter Tavy with a tough uphill climb for several kilometres to reach the summit of Cox Tor. This is followed by a welcome fast downhill section from the top of Cox Tor before another long climb to reach the Langstone.
Runners would usually be rewarded with a 4k fast downhill to the finish. However, this section of the race had been closed, forcing a last minute re-routing of the course. This added almost 2km of extra distance plus some additional elevation. There was confusion over the new route with some runners thrown off course and the confusion was further added to by yellow flag markers for another event.
Just two ORC’s took part, Charlie Temperley who had a strong run coming in 11th overall in a time of 1:06:01 followed by Claire Watkins who was 1st FV40 in a time of 1:10:14. A tough race in the heat, but a very enjoyable one.
Polzeath 10k
On Saturday evening ORC’s Jo Page and Karen King headed to Cornwall to take part in the Polzeath 10k. The weather was stunning with sun, blue skies and high temperatures, idea for a pre-race swim and post-race paddle in the sea!
The course was a mixture of beach, footpaths, and coast path with the most amazing views all the way round. Starting and finishing on the beach the race then does a loop of Pentire headland on the coast path. This includes the landmark Rumps headland that feels like you’re right out in the Atlantic and has some fun scrambly sections. At Pentire Point you turn for home and run along the coast path with open views out to sea, across Padstow Bay and back to Polzeath beach.
The tide was coming in as the runners were finishing, which meant they got wet feet as they ran back on the beach to the finish! Jo Page finished in a time of 50:23, 5th female and Karen King in 1:07:00.
Great running by everyone this weekend!
