THERE were no fewer than 22 personal bests on the weekend the road-racing season got into full swing at the club’s flagship occasion, Bramley.

Pride of place went to Brendan Morris, our second finisher in the 10-miler behind the returning Keith Russell, with a time of 58mins 11secs.

Brendan was 11^th overall, just ahead of another Irishman, Dave McCoy, who also dipped under the hour. Our trio also picked up the silver medals in the team event.

The big pb in the 20-miler was bagged by Seb Briggs, fourth overall in 1:56.40. Seb cleaned up at the prize-giving, taking the MV40 category prize with more than 10 minutes to spare and then carrying off the second-place team award with Alex Warner and Lance Nortcliff.

New international Caroline Hoskins started the season as she means to carry on, slashing a minute off the 12-year-old course record for 20 miles in a new pb time of 2:14.22.

Carrie, who will wear an England vest for the first time in May, finished fifth lady overall and took the FV50 age group award with more than 12 minutes to spare.

Our first lady home at 10 miles was Jane Davies in 1:11.01, a time comfortably good enough to capture the FV50 prize.

Jane also led Helen Pool and new member Katherine Foley to third prize in the ladies team award for the shorter distance.

Hopefully this is a definitive list of the PB’s from the 20-miler, in the order of finishing: Briggs, Paddy Hayes, Katherine Sargeant, our top man’s wife Loretta Briggs, the superstar’s daughter Sophie Hoskins, David Walkley, Dave Brown, Paloma Crayford and Sarah Richmond-De’voy.

Missing altogether from the results submitted to the club newsletter was Peter Manning, who finished 305^th in a time of 2:45.52.

In the 10-miler the new best marks were set by Morris, Gareth Goodall, Vince Williams, Sam Whalley, Nicola Gee, Chloe Lloyd, Maria Norville, Zoe De La Pascua, Jenny Boxwell, Helen Dixon and Sarah Walters.

Sadly, your correspondent scored a notable double of a personal best followed by a personal worst at the weekend.

The best (usual corny joke coming up) was in the Bramley 20, for the very good reason that it was my first time over the distance.

The worst was in presenting the results for the club newsletter straight after the event.

New editor Peter Reilly was anxious to make a good fist of his first edition, giving a very good impression of Tom Hanks playing the boss of the Washington Post, so copy deadlines were tight.

And he wanted a couple of reports on the race, plus a write-up of the club’s Hampshire League success, on the final whistle.

A lot to do… and I’m afraid I made a bit of a pig’s ear of the stats.

This data is always provisional for some considerable time afterwards, but that’s no excuse to my sins of omissions. Apologies if the newsletter listings appeared with some members missing altogether and several personal bests not acknowledged.

I knew things were going badly when I saw David Ferguson post on Facebook that he had achieved a pb. I’m afraid he wasn’t in the original results at all and, consulting the bible that is Power Of 10, he’s still not!

Then I saw a picture on a Flickr album of Claire Woodhouse crossing the line, but I knew I hadn’t spotted a time for her, either.

For the record, Claire’s time for 10 miles was 1:23.14 for 257^th place and I think I also missed Martin Douglas, 288^th in 1:24.25. A time for June Bilsby, a late swapper between the two distances, must remain one of the great imponderables.

As ever, your best chance of getting your name up in lights is to mail your race details to results@readingrunners.org as soon as possible after races. Simple as that.

You can also post in on the club’s Facebook page, send it to my personal email account, text me, tweet it or send it by pigeon. But results@readingroadrunners.org gets the job done.

There was also a pb at the weekend for Kerry Eastwood at the Worthing Half Marathon. Tip for recognition, Kerry: Enter your races as a Roadrunner!

Pictures kindly supplied by Barry Cornelius.

ROADRUNNERS’ superstar vets Caroline Hoskins and Mark Worringham have both qualified to represent England. The pair returned stunning times in the south of England championships at Chichester to earn international places in May.

Carrie will now line up in an England Masters vest in the Great Birmingham 10k… but Mark is sadly unavailable for the big day. The former Roadrunners captain finished 12^th overall in the fiercely-competitive Chichester Priory 10k and was the winner of the MV40 age group in 32mins 57secs.

Like Mark, Carrie just missed a personal best, but her time of 38mins 44secs was good enough for third place in the FV50 section and 18^th lady overall.

The first three Masters in each age group will line up in England colours against another international team yet to be announced. And they will have pride of place in an advanced starting pen just behind the elite group.

Now the Henley grandmother faces an anxious wait for official confirmation of her call-up. A thrilled Carrie said:  “It was a hard race and very windy, but a great event.

“I presume I will hear soon from England Athletics but I have no idea when so I will celebrate when the email comes through. Fingers crossed.

“I was 24 seconds off my 10k pb but happy with that in the conditions… very, very cold and very windy for the last 4K.”

To complete a great day of family success Carrie’s daughter Sophie improved her pb by over two and a half minutes with a time of 42:02.

Unfortunately Mark, who has already represented his country this winter as a cross-country international, won’t be able to join Carrie in Birmingham.

“I will be away that weekend with the boys’ rugby club,” he said, “so I never put myself forward for consideration. I was entered for Chichester before they announced it was a qualification race.”

He was disappointed, too, not to manage a pb. “My best time is 32:05 on the track and 32:22 on the road,” he said. “In fact, I think I’ve run quicker than today about six or seven times.” But Mark has plenty of big targets for the running year ahead, starting with a tilt at a sub 2hrs 30mins in the Brighton Marathon in April.

And he also has the Masters World Track and Field Championships to look forward to in Malaga in September. Along the way he will be seeking that elusive sub-32mins 10k.

Carrie, meanwhile, also has plenty of big targets in the next few weeks… Bramley, the Wokingham and Reading Half Marathons and then London, where she will be aiming to finish in under three hours again. 

Both the Roadrunners’ experienced stars have been nominated by the club in the ‘veteran achiever’ category in the Reading sports personality of the year award next month.

Middle-distance runner Helen Pool was also nominated for a local SPOTY prize in the ‘improver’ category.

ROADRUNNER Mark Apsey stormed to victory in the Thames Valley Cross Country League fixture at Tadley… but he was not the real hero of the hour.

That honour fell to his 11-month-old daughter Tilly, who for once allowed him a full night’s sleep before the race.

“That meant I was able to go into it feeling fresh,” said Mark, “as well as quietly confident after a fourth-place finish in our home fixture.

“So, following a trademark David McCoy fast start, I took the lead after about 500m and managed to hold on to it for the rest of the race.

“For the first lap I knew there was a group just behind me but each time they came up to my shoulder I was able to hold them off. On lap two the group had dropped back but I still felt strong and did all I could to take it out for the win.”

Along with the failure of home club Tadley to field any runners to contest their own event, the atrocious weather and conditions were the big talking-point of the day for runners, team officials and spectators.

But Apsey said: “The course was great. Perfect cross country… mud, water, ducks and leaps. The mud was different from our home fixture. This was slippery mud and although I felt my feet sliding around, my spikes just about kept me vertical the whole way round.

“It was nice to take the win. I’ve had a few in the green vest over the years but this was definitely up there with the best.”

Our winner got great support from McCoy, who finished 11^th, one place in front of another Irishman, the vastly-improved Fergal Donnelly, with Andrew Smith, Andy Blenkinsopp and Ian Giggs also scoring to bring us home in third place.

Gemma Buley was again first finisher for our ladies in 17^th, well backed up by Alix Eyles, Sarah Alsford and captain Sam Whalley, giving us fifth place and helping the club to fourth overall on the day.

The Thames Valley League roadshow now moves on to the Bracknell club’s home fixture at Lightwater, where there will be all to play for against Windle Valley, Datchet and Sandhurst in the battle for end-of-season podium honours.

The good news is that Mark Apsey will definitely be on the start line for us in that one to close out his cross-country season.

For the rest of the year he has one big goal, and a sub-35mins 10k looks well within his capabilities on last summer’s form.

The only event firmly fixed on his calendar is the Mayfair Tower Race in May, a charity run aimed mainly at the hospitality industry. The 5k round Hyde Park sounds OK, but good luck with the climb of 28 floors to the finish at the top of the Hilton Hotel in Park Lane!

Results link: http://www.tvxc.org.uk/results/detail?race_id=77

Our man Chris Lucas scored an impressive win at Woodcote 10K

Results are available to view at http://www.woodcote10k.org.uk/results

Full report by David below. Pictures courtesy of Barry Cornelious
Woodcote10K2018-a