Distance Running News, 2-3 March 2019

03 March 2019

Chris Booth battled against the wind and rain to finish in a fine sixth place in the Berkhamsted Half Marathon. Not satisfied that his new 75:08 personal best at the previous weekend’s Wokingham Half Marathon did him justice, Booth made a last minute decision to tackle the distance again in the Hertfordshire race. However, Storm Freya, plus a couple of testing hills meant that his chances of a PB were slim. On a day when running in a group would have been a big help, Booth found himself isolated in sixth place in the early stages of the race and remained alone in the same position throughout before crossing the line in 76:32 to complete a pleasing performance.

The previous day’s Tewkesbury parkrun saw Kaitlyn Sheppard continue her fine recent form as she lowered her own ladies course record. Having broken Cardiff athlete Camilla Barnes’ record of 19:32 in January with an impressive 19:26, Sheppard had trimmed her own record to 19:25 and 19:18 in recent outings. This weekend she took another five seconds off her own record with a 19:13 clocking that placed her second overall to finish as the first lady home for the 25th time in an event that also saw sister Chloe (22:42) finish as third lady. At the Cirencester parkrun Naomi Eaton (20:06) the leading lady in fifth place overall after Marc Fallows (18:54) led the field home. Eaton’s time also moved her up to fifth place in the event’s all-time ladies rankings. There were also parkrun first place finishes for Alex Doherty (17:48) in Evesham and for Henry James (18:04) in Hastings. Laura Smith (18:30) was the second lady home at the Trafford parkrun in Manchester whilst Dave Tomlin (17:33) finished second at the Worcester event. Steve Hall (19:44), Matt Evans (19:47) and James Bingham (19:48) enjoyed a run out together at the Cheltenham parkrun as they prepared for upcoming races.