Pattingham Bells Run

On a glorious Autumn morning, over 800 runners descended on the village of
Pattingham to run the annual cross country race round the local area over
a seven and a quarter mile course.
Conditions underfoot were quite good with not too much mud following a dry
spell of weather and Robin Guy of Newport and District Running Club took
advantage of this to push on right from the start, keeping close to the
front of the field to finish 35th in 47min 20sec. A tremendous run in a
field of this size.
Gary Postins also had a good event, keeping up a good pace right to the
line, which he crossed in a time of 50m 50s to gain 79th place.
Mark Deighton was 131st a couple of minutes later in 53m 33s and Kevin
Bright was not too far behind in a time of 57m 05s and 236th position.
There was a bit of gap to John Brown who still finished well ahead of many
younger runners in 438th in 63m 14s.
Having a good run and enjoying the event was Sandra Dainty in 509th and
achieving 65m 24s with Benita Guy finishing strongly in 67m08s to cross
the line in 555th.
In 558th was Ceri Christie in 67m 19s and Tracy Hartridge was close on her
heels in 567th in 67m 40s. Helen Hadebe was not far adrift in 580th and
68m 00s and it was good to see Michelle Kattenhorn making a return after
injury to finish 628th in 69m 56s.

Mark Deighton  Newport and District Running Club

Last Sunday, six runners from Newport and District Running Club made the
journey to Wales to run in the Cardiff Half Marathon and Marathon.
Conditions were excellent for the time of year and times were expected to
be fast. In the half marathon the Newport runners did not disappoint with
Rob Guest having a storming run to come in 58th in a field of around 6000
athletes in a quick time of 1hr 23min 52sec. This was also good enough to
give him 36th place in his category.
Mike Taylor also had a good run in the over 50's age group to finish 880th
in 1hr 41min 59sec. This gained him 42nd place in his category.
Bernie Holbrook seemed to be suffering from a lack of recent training, but
still managed to complete the course in 1hr 53min 49sec to achieve 2107th
and 164th in the over 45's group.

The full marathon contained 1500 runners and Glenn MacDonald-Jones
produced a superb performance to outpace many athletes in the younger age
groups to finish 53rd overall in the brilliant time of 2hrs 58min 32sec
and was 4th in the over 50's age group.
This was an excellent performance by any standards and deserves full
recognition.
Stephen Fowles was 222nd overall and 16th in the same age group in a time
of 3hrs 24min 02sec and ran strongly throughout the race.
Completing the Newport line up was Julian Withers in 3hrs 52min 55sec
which was good enough to give him 595th position in the race and 63rd
position in the over 45's group.

All the athletes showed themselves to be of the highest calibre in
achieving their times and positions and represented their club and the
town of Newport admirably.