With a strong headwind on the usually fast, downhill sections, and wet conditions, times were fairly slow overall.  Ollie Gibson, from Newquay Road Runners, bossed the race from the start and won comfortably, with Dave Buzza running an isolated race for 2^nd in 27.03.  Matt Cleave had a better run than at Cubert to come 3^rd in 27.23, with brother Ryan having a blinder, finishing 5^th in 27.58, our only runner to go quicker than at Cubert and by 28 seconds!  Colin Snook’s come back in great shape and ran even better than 3 weeks earlier for 11^th in 28.51 and then there was a battle for the remaining 2 A team places, with Steve Wherry, Phil Tugwell, Adrian Ball, Shaun Tozer and Dave Angilley all finishing within 32 seconds of each other.  Steve just held off Phil by two seconds for 16^th in 29.31 (let’s face it, Phil – if you’d caught him you’d have got out-kicked!!), with Phil rounding off a solid team effort, but not good enough for the win as a revitalised Newquay outfit trumped us with 6 runners in 13 for the win. 

Adrian, lacking a bit of fitness after injury, was storming through the field slightly slower than usual and ended up 19^th in 29.47, coming past Shaun (20^th with 29.55) in the last mile, with Dave only 8 seconds further back in 23^rd and getting fitter all the time, only 27 seconds slower than Cubert.

Paul Chesterfield’s been doing a lot more biking than running recently, but eased round the tough course in 31.27 for 31^st.  Ollie Starr had a solid run in 37^th, with 31.49 for 4^th Under 20 behind Matt and Ryans’ 1-2 and Neville Witham, close behind in 31.56 and 40^th, brought the B team home in a  superb 3^rd place.

He also claimed a well-deserved 3^rd in the Vet.50 category after a few near misses, in what is a very strong local age group.

An indication of our strength in depth was that Dave Southby just missed out on the B team’s prizes (unfortunately not the usual wine!), in 43^rd, with Phil Bolt 27 seconds and 5 places down in 48^th.  Danny Marsh kept up his good form in 81^st with 34.25 and Adrian Mutsaers was 95^th in 35.04 despite a very late arrival.  Viv Bray went better than the last race in 109^th with 35.37, while Pete Torr did the reverse, though we all know that with a tan like Pete’s the rain and cold doesn’t inspire him!  Our C team could start getting into the prizes soon in the shorter races

Adam Herbert ran well again in his second appearance for the club, with 37.29 for 148^th position and Ken Curtis, after promising to run with Jill after injury, left her after half a mile and cruised around in 39.15 for 180^th.

Our wonderful women took a great team victory, despite Jo being sidelined with injury and Donna spectating.  Emma Stallard , gung ho as ever, led ‘til halfway, until Revis Crowle of East Cornwall Harriers caught and eased away from her.  She still finished an excellent 2^nd, also winning the Vet 35 category in 31.42.  Suzy Bosustow was 4^th, just 10 seconds behind 3^rd with 32.51 and is flying at the moment while Bethany Alston was 5^th and first U.20 despite running in the SW Schools Championships earlier in the day.  Sarah Jarvis went very well considering she’d completed the tough Exmoor Half Ironman the previous Sunday, bringing the first team home in 33.58 for 7^th place.  Kathryn Burgess suffered on the hills and didn’t go as well as at Cubert, clocking 35.34 for 13^th lady, which would have comfortably made any other 1^st team – they’re getting good!

Jill Curtis, despite that nasty Ken leaving her on her own, ran well to finish 277^th in 44.09 and was followed by Lynette Torr, like her husband under-performing slightly after yet another holiday and not much running! 

There were 402 finishers, a record number for the race, which was very well organised as usual by Paul Bullock and his team.