The usual beautiful weather for this race resulted in quick times for those who coped well with the heat and the fast first mile.

The highlight of the race was an incredibly close four way women's team battle, with only four points separating the top four clubs. CAC looked like winning for much of the way but in a nail biting wait for their supporters, the girls lost a couple of places in the last few hundred metres and came fourth.  It was a very brave performance from the girls and bodes well for the future, with a few youngsters and the likes of Zelah Morrall, Julia Manning, Barbara Bannon, Barbara Lock, Kerry Priest, Kiri Wedlock and Caroline Chesterfield all capable of adding to the strength of the squad.

Jo Friday took over thirty seconds off her personal best and ducked under the magical thirty minute barrier with 29.50, for a magnificent 2nd place, only beaten by the talented Cathy Newman from Exmouth.  Good to see Alan R hasn't lost his coaching touch, as 2 years ago Jo ran over 4 minutes slower!  I don't want to cause trouble in the Friday household but mention it quietly, Jo beat husband Paul's best time on the course by 8 seconds!  If that doesn't prompt a running comeback by Paul, I don't know what will!

Behind Jo there was a great run by former Cornwall AC girl Juliet Knowles in 3rd and a superb battle between Emma Stallard, Suzy Bosustow and Sarah Keast.   Sarah just prevailed by five seconds from Emma in 33.15, with Suzy coming home in 33.54, giving them 13th, 14th and 16th Ladies places respectively, all in massive personal bests.

Jenny Almey looks in great shape and was going well initially but struggled with her trunk problem again and did well to finish 24th lady in 34.30, despite walking  and jogging for a bit.  Helen Harvey's not a Maggie Thatcher clone but she did do a U turn and deciding to race, coming home in an excellent thirty fourth position in 36.51 and actually looked like she might have enjoyed the experience!  Well done, Helen!

Lynette Torr is a very handy new recruit for the club and ran well finishing in 43.45 (357th place) and Sam Alexander beat her previous by seven minutes and continued her rapid improvement, clocking 47.15 (413^th) in a huge field of over 500 runners.

On the Men's front a few late withdrawals failed to derail the CAC juggernaut but did badly affect the club’s second and third team positions.  With the first three finishers and all six in the first twelve positions, our first team won by a big margin.  Led in by the old boys, Dave Buzza in 1st and Penwith legends (you should read the Cornishman sometime!) Ronnie James and Chris Harry in 2nd and 3^rd, there was never much doubt about the team title, despite Chris nearly losing 3rd by weaving his heat-affected way down the finishing straight.  Jon Keast continues to improve race by race and ran a big personal best in sixth (27.34), with PB’s also coming from Nathan Gosling  (7th in 27.46) and Matt Lewis, who knocked over twenty seconds off his previous time, crossing the line in twelfth position, (28.16).

Dave Angilley is rapidly getting back to form and took two minutes off his Mob Match time (29.37), though he is not as cuddly as before!  He was closely followed by Justin Thomas showing good form again in thirty second place (29.57) and Dave Southby, still continuing his rapid improvement, with a 2 minute PB of 31.33 in 58^th place.   Dave Pell was not going to be left out of the PB celebration, clocking 32.37 in 79^th, despite having missed a lot of training recently and not being able to race since January.   Danny Marsh also sneaked a new best time (34.11), despite fatherhood and his surf life saving commitments, finishing in 112^th spot.

Three of our most valuable team members came in next, all within 35 seconds of each other.  Pete Torr ran a solid 34.26 (one of the very few to run slower than in November's Mob Match - how did you manage that, Pete?!), finishing 125th and Hansel and Gretel (aka Viv and Graham) finished 15 seconds apart, as Viv put his big finish ahead of romance, to clock 34.45 to Graham's 35.00.

David Norton also finished in the top third of the field (166^th in 36.02) and Paul Reeve, who as usual had to be talked out of anything drastic, did manage to set a personal best but only by 5 minutes, poor lad!!  Norris Kington had a great tussle with Pete Mander in the Veterans 65-69 age group and outsprinted him for 2nd place in 40.07 (282^nd), bringing home the Men’s team and beating nearly half the field in the process.   Not bad for a 68 year old!

On to Sticker next on Saturday 23rd at 18.30.