A grey day west of Camborne was lit up by the performances of two of our top runners, with fine personal bests and winning performances from Matt Pullen and Jo Friday in the Blaythorne 10 mile road race.  With the Men’s team winning and the Ladies finishing 3rd, showing much promise for the rest of the year, Alan Rowling was grinning by lunchtime and couldn’t wait to scurry away and write his newspaper reports!

Matt and Jo parade their trophies

There was great anticipation about the Ladies’ race, with Paula Telford from Carn improving rapidly and looking to give Jo a run for her money.  However wise heads knew that it wasn’t going to be that close, particularly over a longer distance.  Jo proceeded to speed around what used to be one of the hillier Grand Prix courses but is now one of the flatter ones (!) and though Paula ran a decent race, she finished 3 minutes behind, with Jo dipping under the significant hour barrier for the first time in 59.56.   Juliet Knowles was 3rd, also, I think, in a big personal best and it’s a shame Sharon Coyne’s not around at the moment to give the girls a race. 

With Emma S and Suzy B, two of our stalwarts, on holiday, we were dubious about our team chances but with Sarah Keast on the comeback trail, Caroline Chesterfield finally racing again after 5 years of triathlons and injury and Jenny Evans surprising us with an appearance, CAC managed a welcome 3rd position.

Good to see Caroline back in action once again

Sarah was 11th and only slightly slower than last year, despite months of injury and illness and Caroline was 21st lady in a very handy 1.15.41.  Jenny ran a useful 1.17.15, despite admitting that her longest ever run before this was 6 miles – not the usual build-up for a hard 10 miler!  Lynette Torr is getting fit again and ran faster per mile here than at the Christmas Turkey Trot and there ain’t many that can say that!  She finished in 1.29.40 to dip under 9 minute miling.

A great run from Jenny in her first 10 miler

On the men’s front, Matt, Shaun Milford (Newquay RR)and Dave Buzza broke clear straight away and rapidly built up a big lead on the rest of the field.  With Shaun running an uncharacteristically “quiet” race, Dave led the first mile before Matt took up the running.  Dave dropped off on the big hill up to Leedstown and Shaun put the boot in to consolidate the gap, before Matt pushed on to the finish to win, producing his best race yet in 53.40.  Shaun took 2nd and Dave was glad of the big gap behind in 3rd.

Early stages in the Men's race, with Matt already pushing the pace....

....and Matt and Jason in the next group
 
Adrian Ball ran his quickest on the course with 58.41 in 6th (2nd Vet40), to continue his great form and Matt Lewis dipped under 60 for the first time (?) in 59.14 for 8th.  Jason Pascoe made a good return to local racing with 59.29 and 9th, having to accelerate late on to stay ahead of Jo!  New recruit Steve Wherry knocked over 4 minutes off last year’s time – obviously the yellow and green vest goes quicker than the luminous green one.  Okay, he’s just a lot fitter after a year’s training!  In fact the way he’s going it looks like he should have been a goal-scoring midfielder rather than a goal-hanging striker in his footballing days!  He brought the men’s first team home for an easy victory in 1.00.53, just ahead of Shaun Tozer, another ex-footballer, who was 16th in 1.01.18.

Steve,making a successful debut in club colours
 
Jeff Houghton cruised around in 1.05.03 for 38th and another ex-Carnie, Phil Bolt has improved markedly in the last year and finished in 1.06.13 for 50th.   Neville Whitham was 5th Vet.50 with 1.07.26 and Dave Pell was a slightly below par 68th in 1.08.21, just staying ahead of a fast-charging Ken Curtis 8 seconds down in 71st.  Paul Chesterfield took it steady after a racing break, coming 80th rather than his usual top fifteen and Adrian Mutsaers looks like he’s getting into good shape for London as he clocked 1.11.40 for 104th.   Pete Torr was two minutes down on last year’s time in 116th after illness and Graham Storer was also suffered in comparison to last year in 132nd with 1.14.16.  Then came a very rough looking Danny Marsh who looked like he should have been back in bed but he got around in 1.15.00 for 137th, just ahead of big Viv Bray, fourteen seconds behind in 140th.   Norris Kington, despite having missed a lot of training, ran a few seconds quicker than last year, for 248th overall and 2nd Vet.65.

Phil, also making a first appearance in the yellow and green

Adrian seems delighted to be back racing again!

There was another healthy increase in entries, with 413 finishers, 55 more than last year.  CAC turned out a decent 24 of this number.

Remember the club’s first Thursday night 5K time trial will take place this week – 7pm as usual from the Leisure Centre.  Good flat course (!) around the Pool Industrial Estate.

More pics in the Photo Gallery soon