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Relay success at Rother Valley
The club has enjoyed an excellent week of racing, led by a superb category victory at the Rother Valley Relays. The ladies over50 team of Rachael Mayston, Julia Johnson and Heather Simpson produced the standout club performance of the evening, winning their age group and leading a strong set of Penistone relay results. There was further veteran success, with the men’s over60 team of Andrew Pearson, Robert Davies and John Howsham finishing second in their category. The men’s over50 quartet of Martin Ball, Jonathan Bentley, Phil Hinchliffe and Matt Robinson also made the podium, placing third in their age group. Penistone were well represented throughout the event, with Flynn Rogers, Sean Pitt, George Parr and Oliver France leading the senior men home, and Jade Crosby, Hannah Shaw and Josie Smith producing a strong run in the women’s race.
The club followed that with another excellent showing at the Silkstone Shuffle, the opening race in Howesy’s Harriers’ Hat-Trick series organised by Barnsley Harriers. Richard Cottam led the charge, finishing second overall in 27-26, while Sean Pitt was fourth in 29-16 and George Parr eighth in 29-56. Martin Ball claimed first over50 in 32-25, with Matthew Robinson close behind in 32-34, while Ian Neville added another category win by taking first over60 in 33-34. The women also impressed, with Rachael Mayston first over50 in 36-13, Jade Crosby first senior woman outside the top three in 36-32, and Jemma Williams continuing her strong form with 36-55.
Gemma Nutton produced one of the standout individual performances of the week at the Edinburgh Marathon, battling through heatwave conditions to finish in under four hours and record a huge 14-minute personal best. With runners struggling in the heat, Gemma adjusted her expectations and focused on getting safely to the finish, but still came home in an official chip time of 3-58-39. She described the final 10K as especially tough, with trail sections, uphill running, a strong headwind and blistering heat all adding to the challenge. The Edinburgh weekend also became a family affair, with three-year-old Rosa completing her first ever race at the Edinburgh Marathon Festival, clocking an official chip time of 7-30 for the 1K.
Dawn Broom enjoyed age category success at the Egdon Easy MT 10K in Dorset. Returning to the event where she ran her first ever 10K, Dawn finished 121st overall in 49-29, placing 19th female and first in the ladies over60 category.
On the fells at Totley Moor, George Parr produced a fine run to finish ninth overall in 49-49. Damian Kilpin followed in 27th in 54-15, while Lesley Parker was fifth in the ladies over50 category in 1-08-34. Jill Scrivens and Mandy Mallinder also completed the challenging route. At the Castleton race, Brent Carlin led the club home in 27th place in 50-56. David Lovatt finished in 59-37, Rebecca Timms was fourth in the ladies over40 category in 61-42, Martyn Goodwin placed fifth in the men’s over60 category in 62-10, and Lesley Parker was fifth ladies over50 in 62-50.
At parkrun, 68 Penistone seniors represented the club across 24 venues. Richard Cottam took second place at Phoenix in 17-26, while Sean Pitt was second at Penistone in a personal best of 17-50 and Ashley Firth third in 17-52. Michael Walsh completed his 300th parkrun at Penistone, and Dawn Godley produced the run of the weekend with an 84.19% age grading, running a personal best of 24-27 at Endcliffe and finishing first over65. Other leading age-graded performances came from Richard Cottam (80.11%), Suzanne McGill (76.70%), Ian Neville (76.34%) and Sue Hall (75.59%).