Miles of smiles as Eddie rolls back years to prove old ones are best

Eddie Thorpe has surprised himself with the club’s best age category performance in the British Masters Virtual  one-mile road relays,  writes Sam Whalley.

In the competition for those aged 35 or over, M75 Eddie finished fourth in the 75-84 age category, with a 77 per cent age-graded time of 7 minutes and 19 seconds.

A 4:40-miler back in the 80s, Eddie was still pretty pleased with his time, having shielded for many months, and not having done any speed work since the track first closed a year ago, maintaining his fitness initially with many miles on a Wattbike. 

He waited with bated breath though, to find out if he would make the top three, with the top runner also listed as an M65, for team purposes.

The event attracted over 1200 masters athletes from around the country, and 24 Roadrunners, who were led home by M40 Mark Worringham in a speedy 4:50 (83% age grade).

W60 Jane Davies achieved the top age grade, though, with 87% for her time of 6:42, followed by M55 Brian Kirsopp (81% for 5:38), and W45 Helen Pool, who was paced to a PB of 5:57 (her first sub-six, 80%) by Tony Page, who had already logged 5:20 for himself before knocking ten seconds off in another attempt.

The fastest female Roadrunner, though, was W35 Jane Copland, whose 5:48 earned her ninth place in her age category.

Well done to everyone who took part.

Here are the team scores:

M35-44 (46th): 36: Mark Worringham (4:50), 633: Ben Fasham (6:15), 869: Chris James (6:56).

M45-54 (37th): 177: Tony Page (5:20), 769: Chris Manton (6:38), 878: Art Atwal (6:57).

M55-64 (14th): 314: Brian Kirsopp (5:38), 698: David Caswell (6:24), 964: Peter Reilly (7:19).

W35-44 (21st): 398: Jane Copland Pavlovich (5:48), 845: Caroline Jackson (6:50), 1099: Nicola Gillard (8:04).

W45-54 (21st): 490: Helen Pool (5:57), 969: Elizabeth Ganpatsingh (7:20), 1063: Saba Reeves (7:48).

Here’s all the Roadrunners’ positions:

Posted in Dibben Report, Jan-April 21, Race Events, Race Reports, Results, Roadrunners 21.

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