2020 STAC Championships Race 3 – Spen 20

Race report by Sam Jackson…

The third club championship race took us to the delights of cleckheaton and the ups and ups and ups and  downs of spen 20.

This race was one that was pushed by Richard cooper (who wasn’t there by the way) (don’t worry we know why Richard!) and voted for by members (a lot of who else weren’t there either ?). 

Us hardy marathon training runners turned up with no marathon now to train for so none of us had gone with our mojo intact but take it on we did, 20 hard miles of 3 times past the same water station of hill after hill after hill – it felt never ending and a few downs with a fair bit of headwind thrown in for good measure.

To say we weren’t feeling it to start with ended with Emma Longfellow getting a PB, Sarah Morley running the furthest she has ever ran (and getting a great time too!), Shane grace coming 2nd in his age category (v40) and 7th overall and Glen Johnson’s trainers coming 2nd v45 and also earning a pb at 20 miles.

Overall this was one tough 20 mile race all for a cup of tea at the end but I’m sure we are all glad we turned up and did it – would I ever listen to Richard coopers recommendations for a race again? Probably not unless I researched it first!

The club championship has Shane Grace leading Glen Johnson and Greg Weatherhead in the mens. In the ladies the top 3 are Sarah Morley, Sam Jackson and Emma Longfellow. Full table below (it’s best 2 out of the 3 races):

In the team challenge the ‘Summer striders’ still lead overall, but the gap has been closed after the ‘Winter Wayfarers’ performed best at Spen.

Full result here, hopefully not too long before the next club race.