STAFFORD HALF MARATHON
A huge field of over 1300 runners descended on Stafford last Sunday for
the Stafford Half Marathon on a bright morning, but with a cool wind to
keep the runners from overheating.
Newport and District Running Club put in a strong team of 15 athletes who
performed well on the day with Ed Jopling leading home the Newport team
with a time of 1h 22m 59s to take 59th place. A tremendous achievement in
a field of this size and a tribute to Ed's hard work to improve his speed
and stamina over the winter.
In 94th place was John Garmson who is still coming back from a knee
problem. His time of 1.26.02 was still very good considering his recent
problems.
Pete Johnstone has been single minded in his recent preparations for the
London Marathon next month and this helped him to a personal best of
1.28.05 and 112th place. Steve Tudor continues to do well, posting a time
of 1.29.06 in 128th place.
A little slower than his time in Ironbridge, Sandy Mackenzie's 1.33.30 was
still good enough to give him 203rd position. 375th in a time of 1.39.48
was Kevin Bright and he was follwed shortly after by Steve Wootton in
1.40.29 to take 393rd.
Pauline Newton was 498th in 1.43.57 and Roger Kerr 577th in 1.46.28. Susan
Marshall kept up a steady pace to claim 624th in 1.48.15 with Judi Clayton
not far behind her in 690th in 1.50.30.
There was a bit of a gap to Beverly Stoddart in 968th position who posted
2.03.04 and Graham Kenyon kept going to the finish to cross the line in
2.03.50 and achieve 990th position. Paula Holloway chased him to the
finish and was only six seconds behind him in 995th and Edward Roper was
1322nd in 3.22.24.
 
MARCH HAIR RAISER
At the same time, Mark Deighton was running in a new race on the calendar,
the March Hair Raiser, at Kingswood near Albrighton. This was a fairly
flat and mainly off road race and attracted nearly 140 to the first
running of the event.
Still suffering from a recent bout of flu, Mark had a steady run over the
six miles, even managing a little push on the last few hundred uphill
yards to gain 28th place in 42m 32s.

Pontesbury Potter

The glorious weather last Saturday brought out walkers and runners in
their droves for the eleventh staging of the Pontesbury Potter. The new
organisers were pleased to have a record number of 525 participants
taking part and they were given a set of instructions which took them on a
route of approximately fourteen miles over hills, through woods, across
fields, through mud and even through a river.
Newport's Helen MacDonald-Jones enjoyed the spring sunshine to post the
excellent time of 2hrs 56min while Mark Deighton, who was one of the early
starters, pushed through to return to the finish in 2hrs 27min. Both of
them are already looking forward to next year's Potter as well as other
races this year.

The following day saw Mark Deighton in action again along with John Brown
of Newport and District Running Club. They made the journey to Stourport
in Worcestershire to run in 'The Treat', an eight mile multi terrain run.
Part of the route went alongside the wolf enclosure at the West Mids
Safari Park which was an incentive for the back markers to pick up the
pace a bit.
Again the weather and conditions were excellent for the 130 runners and
the leaders set off at a fast pace. Mark was probably feeling the effects
of the previous day's run in his legs, however, and had a steady run by
his standards to cross the line in 58th place in a time of 1h 00m 57s.
John had a good run in his over 60's age group to finish 99th overall in
1hr 10m 20s.

Milford 21

Most people would have been safely indoors last Sunday avoiding the  wet
weather and strong winds. Newport and District Running Club members  are
made of sterner stuff however, and three of them continued their  push
towards the London Marathon next month by running the Milford 21  over the
off road course on Cannock Chase.
In conditions which  could only be described as awful, the 180 participants
had to negotiate  a shallow river as well as several climbs and an
abundance of mud. This  made the going rather difficult and quite slippery
in  places.
Lindsay Ferguson had a good run and kept going right through  the race to
finally finish 98th in a time of 3h 15m 43s. A little way  ahead of her was
Ian Atkinson who finished 70th in what he says was a  comfortable race, but
still managed the very respectable time of 3h 01m  44s.
Club honours on the day went to Sandy Mackenzie, who seems to be  improving
week by week in his preparation for the London Marathon. He  had an
excellent run in the conditions to cross the line in 2h 48m 57s  in 41st
position overall.

At the same time Mark  Deighton went to the Wyre Forest in Worcestershire
for an eight mile  off road race. Conditions were no better in this part of
the country as  over 200 runners set off from the Forestry Visitor Centre.
After a  short time the race left the main forestry track and the course
turned  to almost knee deep mud which slowed everyone down considerably.
This  combined with very slippery conditions when running up or down made
it  very difficult and more than one runner lost their footing as  they
pressed on towards the finish.
Mark refused to be beaten  by the conditions and ran on to be rewarded with
a finishing time of  63m 08s and 43rd position overall as well as 3rd in
his age  group.

Mark Deighton Newport and District Running  Club