Distance Running News, 18 November

19 November 2017

Dave Francis continued his fine run of form with yet another personal best to finish eighteenth at the Windsor Autumn Half Marathon at Eton Dorney. Having joined the club in the late Spring with personal bests of over 20 minutes for 5km and 92 minutes for the half marathon, Francis has consistently kept lowering his best times and has clearly benefited from the sessions in Dave Newport’s highly competitive training group. After breaking 19 minutes for 5km in the summer, Francis then proved himself over the longer distances with Autumn half marathon PB times of 86:04 and 85:33 at Bristol and Stroud respectively. Two weeks ago the determined Cheltenham athlete made another breakthrough with a time of 30:17 for eleventh place at the Tewkesbury Guy Fawkes 5 mile race, so lined up at Eton full of confidence as he sought to break the 85 minute barrier. Gaining places after the opening five miles Francis yet again hit new heights to lower his personal best to an impressive 1:23:45 as he came home in eighteenth place.

The Kingsway parkrun in Gloucester saw Andy Gardiner lower his fastest time on the course to 17:06 as he claimed his seventh win at the event by finishing sixteen seconds clear of Severn AC’s Chris Brown. The parkrun addict has now contested a mammoth 293 events and enjoyed wins at 21 different parkrun venues. The Cheltenham parkrun meanwhile saw Marcus England and Dave Aubrey finish in first and second as they incorporated the event into their training by posting times of 17:21 and 17:37 respectively. James Bingham followed in sixth as he stopped the clock at 18:09 after four laps of the Pittville Park lake. On the grass course at Plock Court Steve Bradley was fourth across the line in the Gloucester North parkrun with a time of 19:45.