Andy C reports from league race 3: Desford 5-
Sunday 31st March 2019 saw the third instalment of the Leicestershire Road Running League spring season and a trip over to Desford for the ‘flat’ Desford 5. The weather was dry and overcast with a chilly ‘into your face’ breeze seemingly whichever way you turned. Whoever chose this Sunday to be Mother’s Day obviously hadn’t considered the race calendar! Due to this, some birthday’s, and illnesses, a few of the regular league runners were unable to take part but we still managed to field a pretty impressive team of 23, made up of 13 Men and 10 Ladies. I travelled over with a Jelley, a Bush and a King, which was nice!
After a warm-up it was over to the start line that was as crowded as ever. And we’re off. 5 miles is one of these distances where you can pretty much give it all you can from the start and just hang in there when it gets tough. I have only previously ran this once before in 2017 and could actually only remember one hill (the one at about 4 miles back up past the Indian restaurant). I very happily shared this information with other club members. Well, that was a mistake. More on that later!
The usual suspects of Luke, Bruno and Bushy were soon off into the distance. I started off running with Jason and Dave R (unable to continue his rivalry with fellow Wreakie Ian H today). The first couple of miles are fast and flat with a downhill thrown in. Sadly, at just over a mile Mark Bush had to pull up with a strained calf muscle and retire from the race. I stopped to check he was ok and he told me to carry on. My next thought as I was running off was ‘he gave us a lift here, what if he clears off and makes us run home’ (I didn’t really think that or have to run home!). Mark has already posted on Leicester Runners FB page with a general ‘thank you’ to all the runners that asked how he was as they passed him. The running community is great! Rest up and hopefully you’ll be back for Livingston Relays.
The next couple of miles came as a bit of a surprise, I didn’t remember those hills from last time. As someone very kindly pointed out to me ‘old age has set in’. If only that was the worst they had said.
After the hill that I had remembered, it was a fairly flat and fast last mile into the finish. Luke (pictured with his unique running style) had the force with him today and finished with a light speed Garmin time of 29:59. It was a few hours wait before the official chip time came out and it hadn’t added that annoying extra second on. So, 29:59 for Luke and another Gold Standard. Looking good for London, Luke. Golds also for the fantastic Jane C (1st in her age category) and Christina (2nd in her age category), great running. And Gold also for Bruno and myself and picking up 2nd and 3rd respectively in MV50. Another notable mention to Emily Hollis finishing 8th female and 5th senior female and also to Jon Finnemore, after narrowly missing out on Diamond standard at Coventry Half the week before, he’s jumped into the MV60 category and duly ran a Diamond time, well done Jon ;).
We wandered back to the sports hall, changed, had a coffee. Thankfully, Bushy was still there with his ‘door to door’ service still available. And then, boom, it happened, a torrent of abuse and expletives reined down on me. The likes of which I had never heard before. It made Gordon Ramsey look like Mary Berry. I was shocked and stunned and might have had several eyelashes in my eyes that needed urgent attention. And this was from one of my own team mates. All because I hadn’t mentioned a couple of little hills. I’m far too much of a gentleman to name names, you know who you are! (I’m only joking)
Some marathons and half marathons await in April, with May seeing the team event ‘Livingston Relays’ on the 5th, and the next league race at West End 8 on 19th May.
Thanks from Wreake Runers to Desford Striders for a well organised event.
Wreake Runner’s Desford 5 results:
| Pos | Gun Time | Name | Gen | AgeCat | Chip Time | Gen Pos | Cat Pos | |
| 32 | 00:30:02 | Luke Smith | M | SENM | 00:29:59 | 32 | 21 | Gold |
| 56 | 00:31:24 | Bruno Nikoloff | M | M50 | 00:31:21 | 52 | 2 | Gold |
| 72 | 00:32:19 | Andrew Carmichael | M | M50 | 00:32:14 | 68 | 3 | Gold |
| 81 | 00:32:44 | Jason Weetman | M | M45 | 00:32:39 | 77 | 14 | Silver |
| 83 | 00:32:54 | Dave Rose | M | SENM | 00:32:49 | 79 | 44 | Bronze |
| 108 | 00:33:40 | Jon Finnemore | M | M60 | 00:33:33 | 101 | 1 | Diamond |
| 113 | 00:33:45 | Emily Hollis | F | SENF | 00:33:42 | 8 | 5 | Silver |
| 219 | 00:37:09 | Lea Besson | M | M40 | 00:36:48 | 182 | 30 | Bronze |
| 237 | 00:37:38 | Gareth Tomlinson | M | M45 | 00:37:18 | 193 | 35 | Bronze |
| 238 | 00:37:41 | Ashley Hollis | M | M50 | 00:37:21 | 194 | 26 | Bronze |
| 245 | 00:37:51 | Elizabeth Collingham | F | F40 | 00:37:35 | 46 | 7 | Bronze |
| 278 | 00:38:53 | Corrina Powell | F | SENF | 00:38:45 | 58 | 30 | Bronze |
| 283 | 00:38:57 | David King | M | M40 | 00:38:31 | 224 | 34 | Copper |
| 321 | 00:40:25 | Brian Harris | M | M50 | 00:40:05 | 244 | 38 | Bronze |
| 327 | 00:40:39 | Richard Palmer | M | M50 | 00:40:14 | 247 | 39 | Bronze |
| 328 | 00:40:39 | Mark Jelley | M | M55 | 00:40:13 | 248 | 17 | Bronze |
| 355 | 00:41:43 | Christina Heerey | F | F60 | 00:41:35 | 96 | 2 | Gold |
| 413 | 00:43:57 | Abigail Arthur | F | F45 | 00:43:24 | 129 | 24 | Copper |
| 436 | 00:45:19 | Karen Lazzari | F | F50 | 00:44:39 | 146 | 14 | Bronze |
| 464 | 00:46:45 | Victoria Meynell | F | SENF | 00:46:06 | 163 | 73 | Pewter |
| 471 | 00:47:04 | Jane Collingham | F | F70 | 00:46:27 | 167 | 1 | Gold |
| 508 | 00:51:01 | Katherine Lang | F | SENF | 00:50:22 | 198 | 81 | Tungsten |
| 539 | 00:55:13 | Rachel Waters | F | F45 | 00:54:34 | 221 | 47 | Tungsten |
All results can be found here: http://lran.org.uk/desford-5-3