After an amazing start to 2019 in January, February continued the successful start with Dashers participating in a number of events including the Hillingdon Half, Thorpe & Egham Half, Brighton Half, Bramley 20, Hampton Court Half, Tunbridge Wells Half, Superheroes and Supervillains Run, Windsor Winter Fun Run 5k and 15k – apologies if I’ve missed any but I think you get a sense of the variety and geographical spread of events our members participate in. I want to focus on some particular events here:
Wokingham Half
24 February saw Dashers making the start line for the Wokingham Half on a day unseasonably hot for the time of year. Starting and finishing at Cantley Park the race runs on fast, flat rural roads and each year produces outstanding performances run on closed roads under UK Athletics rules. This particular half marathon has produced fast times since 1984 and despite the heat, this year was no exception for Dashers. Mark Ferguson was first Dasher home in 1:18:07, closely followed by Chris Hunt in 1:18:38. Jill Collett was first lady Dasher home in 1:19:33 also being first in her age group. Special mentions to Yvonne Olney 1:53:01 and Ian Spencer 1:46:06 who were both first in their respective age groups. Many of the 53 Dashers who participated recorded PBs so I think it’s safe to say that this event is very definitely in the calendar already for next year.
Rob McHarg
Massive congratulations to Rob who set a new MV50 5k club record at Bushy parkrun on Saturday 23 February. He knocked 24 seconds off his old record with a time of 17:21 and recorded an age grading of 88.4% which is the highest recorded for a Dasher. It was also a new MV55 record at Bushy parkrun.
And finally…Dash in the Dark
Yes, I know it took place on 2 March and so not technically in February but it didn’t seem right to wait for another 4 weeks before writing about it. The feedback which has been left on our social media accounts has been overwhelmingly positive and this is due to you – our amazing Dashers! I hesitate to list all those who helped, as inevitably you miss someone so a big THANK YOU to you all. You all helped in many different ways, as putting on an event like this takes a lot of work and planning... and cake! It’s fair to say that we were all a tad nervous this year as we wanted the event to go well so badly, especially as we had to cancel due to snow last year. We can all now breath a huge sigh of relief.
First home was Patrick Butler from Burnham Joggers who absolutely romped home in an (almost) unbelievable time of 36:50 – congratulations to him and the other 215 people who finished the Dash.
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