For those building up to a spring marathon, the Ashby 20 is often a key milestone, either pacing well for a solid training run, or pushing on to test fitness – it is certainly a tough test in itself, with 20 undulating miles over the roads.
On a sunny spring day, the start/finish area had a great atmosphere, so much so that Jason Barton couldn’t stay away for long – his time of 2.07.42 being the 3rd quickest ever at a 20 mile race as a Strider, with only Chris and Nicola ever going faster.
Simon Bottrill was next home, in an impressive 2.34.54 (given the previous day’s efforts), with Dan Valencia and Michael Atton also putting tired legs to the test in 2.43.43 and 2.44.00. Rob Beers (representing first claim club, Barrow) 2.43.47. Rich Gray (2.46.43), Vicki Lowe (2.52.12), Abi Arnott (2.52.13), Michelle Farlow (2.53.27) and John Houghton (2.57.08) put in solid performances whilst building up to longer challenges, as did Sarah Lawrence (3.36.43) and Shaun Staff (4.23.52). [Rich]
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Whats tapering? Race two for some of us this weekend (Grr Shiny Road Runners) and there didn’t seem to be many creaks this morning for the race which most people do as part of their Marathon training. Now, when you go to an event you see people with T-shirts of `Madrid Half-Marathon` or `Los Angeles Marathon` but let’s be honest in the Midlands running circles the only true respect your going to get is if you sport the famous Ashby 20 hoodie!
It’s pretty much a Bucket list race if just for the Hoodie. So quite a few debutants this year in fact I think there were seven Strider debutants for this race and it’s not an easy one, all about getting your splits right and not going off like a whirlwind I must admit I had it good on the pressure front as was only pacing a friend yet thoroughly enjoyed it, Michael Atton despite feeling it somewhat after running so hard yesterday managed a great time in his debut, Michelle Farlow looking very ready for the Virgin London Marathon, oh to be honest we all ran very well! Totally a race where I think you can learn from about your running pacing and stamina and we also found out they don’t serve good cups of Tea in Ashby. [Rob]