Mortimer Forest, Ludlow Parkrun Championship Round #4
Pick some shoes, any shoes!!!
CMRC members all rocked up in almost synchronised formation for Mortimer Forest Parkrun. What felt like a secret world deep in the trees and nestled into the hillside, Mortimer Forest was an unusually small event to what many of our runners are used to. This made for a relaxed and enjoyable morning; weaving our way through the twists and turns, down what was almost Paris-Robaix (for the cyclists among us) type cobbled rocky paths and across quite muddy cross country type sections.
A total no.38 of CMRC members careered round the course, starting off at quite a narrow bottle neck a mere 2 bodies wide, before stretching out under the tree canopies and veering off down one of the first cobble-like downhills. The course then took an uphill slalom, left and right....and left and right again (which felt infinite!) back on itself where many of us could see who was closely following our tails! Two and 'a bit' laps of this fooled many of us first timers at the course into thinking it was very nearly complete. The finish, a short sharp handbrake turn back into the group where many of us were mostly echoing "blimey, that was a bit mental!", and "I wasn't expecting that!" And almost certainly "I'm glad I wore Trail shoes!".
Some incredible times were clocked in for what was a pretty technical trail route. Those of which include:
Adam Sadler, coming in at a fabulous 20:56. Adam is one of our Group 5 runners, a first timer at Mortimer Forest and is having a really solid start to the season!
A lot of our other sub 25'ers on the course were;
Matt Bailey. 21:36.
Shavaun Jordan. 21.56.
John Broadhurst. 21:59.
Paul Scott. 22:28.
Andrew Woodall, who is rapidly proving to be Group 5 standard! Andrew is still a fairly new member and is showing signs of a very strong and talented runner, clocking in 22:57.
Paul Manison. Paul is starting to find his rhythm at each event and training session, also showing signs of fresh talent and ever improving fitness. A rapid time of 23:23 on the nose.
Mark Lyall. 23:51.
Chris Harrison. 23:45.
James Hollis. 24:12.
Paul Skellern. 24:21.
Mike Parker. 24:37.
Ade Ford. 24:38
Hayley Jennings. 24:51.
The sun soon began to break whilst the remainder of the pack came across the line to cheers and claps of support. Emma Paine, recovering from a recent dislocated shoulder no less, had beaming smiles and laughs all round, always bringing that positive energy!
Stay tuned for the next round folks, the first of three Fast and Furious rounds at Stourport Circuit. The first kicking off on 24th May. Why not come along and check it out? See you there!
