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.