There are positives and negatives when the wind does not blow. On the down-side it means less renewable energy production, leading to greater reliance on natural gas, which in turn leads to a price surge, with knock-on effects for the energy market, which could exacerbate an inflationary spiral with huge consequences for the cost of living, household finances and the global economy.
But on the plus side, light wind makes for perfect Parkrun PB conditions.
At the Mundy playing fields Jim proved that he has still Godden-it! Our men’s cross-country captain ran a 20 minute-flat PB, finishing fourth overall. As Jim competes in a category reserved for those with high levels of accumulated wisdom, this translated to an age-grade score a smidgen under 80% – a ranking Parkrun UK says is national standard. A fantastic run by Jim, and hopefully this level of performance will mean he will challenge for his age-group title in the forthcoming Glos Cross Country League races.
Not far behind Jim, Tom Usherwood also ran an excellent PB, finishing in 8th place in 21:53. Emma Pritchard was fourth female finisher, and just missed out on her course PB, running 28:05. Melinda Evans also missed her PB by a handful of seconds. She ran 32:08.
To judge from his Strava feed, Dylan Roberts has spent the past two years, off-grid, living wild in the Forest of Dean, surviving on berries and wild boar. Or possibly he and his family moved to Lydney – I ought to check. Either way, this naturally-gifted athlete has been throwing out some stunning park-run times recently. He was second place at Mallards Pike in 18:22, but has previously run 17:44. Hopefully Dylan can be tempted back over the Bridge to bolster our men’s cross-country team.
Six days after a full-on half-marathon effort most people are still re-fuelling on pies and vin rouge, but Paul Thomas joined Dylan at Mallards Pike in a very respectable 6th place/19:25/78% age-grade. Over at Stonehouse, Nick Langridge ran 21:54, which also gave him a 79% age-grade score. I realise I go on about these quite a lot, but it is worth noting that a 25-year old male runner would need to record something like 15:45 to get a comparable score to those recorded this week by Jim, Nick and Paul.
I understand that Nikki Foss ran the Nottingham half-marathon on Sunday. She finished in 2hrs 17mins which is an excellent effort, especially considering she’s only recently started to train consistently after giving birth.
Finally, just a week out from London, not many people would choose to warm up with a trail half-marathon. However George Evans continued his highly impressive run of form with an outstanding 15th position out of 527 runners at the Forest of Dean Half, in a time just over 1hr 28 mins. This route wouldn’t be comparable to a road run, so this tune-up suggests a sub-three hour run could be on the cards next Sunday in London. Good luck, and have fun, to all the TRC runners heading to the capital next week!