For the first time since early 2020, August 2021 felt like a normal month for Dashers. There were lots of events and our members made sure Dashers was represented. This was in part due to England moving into step 4 of the COVID -19 roadmap whereby restrictions were considerably eased allowing events to take place and offer more of the socialising that we’ve missed over the last 18 months.
Here are some of the month’s highlights.
On 12 August, we had our Dashers Relays taking place on Home Park superbly organised by Bella and Gillian. We had 71 teams taking part and the atmosphere as everyone gathered at the start was exhilarating - everyone was so excited to be back and running against friends from other clubs. The weather was perfect and helped set the scene for a great evening.
For those of us watching it was a thrilling competition with Daddy Old Legs battling against Green Lane Gringos for the lead. Over the 10 laps, the lead did change but Dashers own Daddy Old Legs (Rob Foster and David Lee) crossed the line 10 seconds ahead of Green Lane Gringos ( Richard Lazell and Spencer Bateman).
The first mixed team came in 4th and was the Windle’s Wicked Wannabes. First Ladies team was Dashers, Speed Sisters in 22nd place (Claire Pusey and Emily Hicks) and the first junior team was The Possums in 31st place.
On 15 August it was the Burnham Beeches 10k and Half marathon and Dashers were out in force at these two events. Our first Dasher home in the half marathon was James Bates followed closely by Helen Bolt. In the 10k, Ken Brown was first Dasher home in 46:10 making him first in the V50 category.
The events came thick and fast in August as two days later on Tuesday 17 August it was the Dashers event in the Summer 5k series. Again, the weather was kind to us although no-one could accuse August 2021 of being a scorcher. Dashers were out in force marshalling and volunteering and generally living up to being the fabulous social club that we know we are!
A special mention must go to Robert McHarg who became the British Masters V55 1500m champion and then added the silver medal in the V55 800m.
And finally, we come to the Mad Nina - our inaugural backyard ultra where participants have to run just over 4 miles each hour until there is only one manor woman left. We had 20 stalwarts starting at 12 noon on Saturday - all looking fresh and ready to go. Everyone had various ideas of how many miles they’d run so it was a case of wait and see. By hour 6 we had 6 Dashers remaining Veronika, Anne, Sam, Emily, Clive and Yvonne - at this point they’d run over 20 miles and this hour would bring them up to just over marathon distance,
By hour 8 we had the final three runners, Clive, Veronika and Anne. Clive dropped out at this point having run over 30 miles and it was left to Anne and Veronika and that was how it stayed until remained until hour 15. Anne started the hour but decided enough was enough shortly after. Veronika had to complete the hour to claim the trophy and so she did at shortly before 3am on Sunday 29 August having run almost 63 miles. Am sure there’s a word for that - awesome! Congratulations to both Veronica and Anne for making the inaugural Mad Nina something special.
And so, that's the round up for August - it was a busy month and we are now looking forward to the Autumn half and full marathon. Dashers, remember #werunwindsor