Rodillian Runners mark busy anniversary year impressively with club records smashed

Ten marathons were run in Florida, Snowdonia, Manchester, Paris, London Edinburgh and York where Claire Telford completed her first marathon in four hours: 47 minutes and Neil Hartley set his second marathon PB of the year with 3hrs, 34mins.

In Snowdonia, Elinor Snape also ran her first marathon in 4hrs, 50mins while Mike Dunkley set another PB in London with 3hrs, 57mins.

In Florida, Eddy Lowe produced an outstanding performance to finish as the first Briton home and 35th overall out of a field of over 5,300 runners in the Disneyland Dopey Challenge of running 5km, 10km, a half marathon and full marathon over four consecutive days.

Seventeen half marathons were also completed in Giants Causeway, Cambridge, Vancouver, London, Rivington, Leeds and at the Great North Run.

In Leeds, Rods had seven runners with Jo-Ann Langley running a PB and club age group record in 1hr, 57mins, while there were five runners in the GNR, where Laura Bell also set a PB of 1hr, 59mins.

There were big turnouts from the club at Wakefield Hospice 10K (13 runners), Dewsbury Flat Cap (20) and Rodillians competed in many other 10K events including Leeds Country Way, Abbey Dash, Doncaster 10K, Jane Tomlinson Canal Series and the Leeds Dock Relay.

In the recent races, Beth Gripton 45:25, Mike Garnham 51:01 Matthew Stephenson 59:46 and Louise Thompson 60:28 finished the Sheffield Percy Pud 10K and Jon Vaile posted 63:46 in the Leeds BaH Humbug 10K.

On top of this, club members have run hundreds of parkruns across the UK and also in France and Italy.

Star performer has been Beth Gripton with three first places, including a PB of 21mins, 32.

Neil Hartley and Claire Telford both recorded their 200th parkruns and Hayley Hartley, Elinor Snape, Jon Vaile and Mike Garnham reached the 100 milestone.

And in the club’s Distance League the winners were Ingrid Senior and John McCarthy.

Club founder Ron Needham was nominated as president of the English Cross Country Association for 2022/23 and officiated at his 25th Wakefield Hospice race as well as events like the Yorkshire Marathon and Abbey Dash.

Overall members have run over 1500 miles in races – the equivalent of London to Rome – along with many thousands more of miles completed in training.

And with membership at a new high, Rodillian Runners look well set for their 21st anniversary year in 2023. Rodillians is a small friendly social running club and new members are always welcome, see (www.rodillianrunners.co.uk) (http://www.rodillianrunners.co.uk/) for details.