Josie leads Penistone success on roads and fells

The club enjoyed another successful weekend, with victories, podium finishes and personal bests across road races, fell events and parkruns. At the No Walk in the Park 5K in Chesterfield, Josie Smith produced an outstanding performance to win the ladies race in a personal best of 20-48, improving her previous best by ten seconds. Flynn Rogers was the club's leading male runner, finishing third overall in an impressive 16-36, while Richard Heppenstall took ninth place in 17-14, claiming second in the men's over45 category. George Parr continued his excellent form with 17-30 for eleventh, followed by Damian Kilpin in 19-22 and Shaun Swallow in 20-58. There were further strong performances from Sarah Bradley, who finished sixth lady in 22-39 and second in the ladies over35 category, Gemma Nutton, tenth lady and second senior woman in 23-45, and Amelia Cottam, who completed the course in 23-56.

At the Run Tatton Half Marathon in Cheshire, Marc Robertson produced another excellent performance, finishing 60th overall from a field of 1,715 runners in a chip time of 1-25-36. Marc also secured third place in the men's over45 category.

Thursday evening saw the fourth round of the Philip Senior Winter Handicap, with 19 runners tackling the hilly 4.5-mile course around Penistone, Rockside and the windmills. David Arthur claimed victory on handicap, completing the course in 44-19, two minutes and 51 seconds faster than predicted. Shaun Braddock finished second in 37-11, beating his predicted time by two minutes and 49 seconds, while Sara Wolstenholme was third in 49-15. Kim Rogers and Jen Holley completed the top five, with all 19 competitors finishing ahead of their predicted times. George Parr recorded the fastest men's time of 27-37, followed by Alex Crosby in 31-34 and Alexander Melhuish in 32-39. Graihagh Turner was comfortably the fastest lady in 30-17, ahead of Helen Turner (41-28) and Tracy Woodward (46-01). In the separate WMA age-adjusted competition, Barbara Haigh took maximum points with an adjusted time of 25-23, followed by Graihagh Turner (27-27) and Julian Williams (27-28). Barbara now leads the overall WMA league with a perfect 100 points from four races, ahead of Williams on 93 and Parr on 89. Shaun Braddock lies fourth on 75 points, with Alexander Melhuish fifth on 66.

On the fells, three Penistone runners tackled the challenging Leg It Round Lathkil fell race near Bakewell, covering approximately seven miles of Peak District terrain. Damian Kilpin led the trio home in 53-59, while Shaun Swallow recorded a course personal best of 1-01-33. Lesley Parker completed the race in 1-09-13. Further afield, Harriet Drouin took on the demanding Soyland Moor fell race at Cragg Vale, covering 13.5 miles with approximately 1,300 feet of climbing. Harriet finished 97th overall and 20th lady in 2-43-21, shaving 12 seconds off her previous course best.

In Wales, Greg Slack helped his Ring of Fire team secure third place overall at the Black Sheep Coast 2 Coast Winter Ultra on the Llŷn Peninsula. Greg tackled the fourth leg of the demanding team event, covering approximately 6.8 miles with more than 1,000 feet of ascent in 54 minutes. Penistone runners were also active in orienteering, with Flynn Rogers and Ben Thorogood tackling the blue course at Ecclesall Woods in Sheffield, recording 59-47 and approximately 1-35 respectively.

Saturday's parkruns brought two outright victories for Penistone, with brothers Tom and James Fryers both taking first place. Tom won at Bug Hunter Waters in 17-35, while James recorded 19-30 to triumph at Flatts Lane. Richard Cottam claimed second place at Concord in 18-14, while Simon Pike was runner-up at Waverley Lakes with a personal best of 20-07. Hannah Shaw took second female at Grizedale Forest in 23-28. Concord also saw Ben Wilkinson celebrate his 50th parkrun, finishing in 27-18, while Jemma Williams recorded a course personal best of 23-27, taking second place in the ladies over45 category. Dawn Godley produced another outstanding performance at Rother Valley, recording a personal best of 24-06 to finish first lady over65, while Dan Cooper also achieved a course personal best of 22-18. Shaun Braddock was first in the men's over60 category at Rotherham in a personal best of 23-38, while Emma Stead claimed first place in the ladies over45 category. Further category victories came from Keith Gordon in the men's over75 at Vale Park, Sue Hall in the ladies over65 at Itchen Valley, Ray Brown in the men's over85 at Concord, Jill Scrivens in the ladies over55 at Queensway and Rory O'Sullivan in the men's over50 at Bramley. John Lawcock enjoyed his fastest parkrun for two years at Ury Riverside in Scotland, finishing twelfth overall and first in the men's over60 category in 21-50, while Jane Lawcock completed the same event in 33-52. The trip to Queensway parkrun was particularly special for Myfanwy Cross, who celebrated her birthday and completed her parkrun alphabet challenge, having now visited events beginning with every letter used in the challenge. Cross was joined by fellow Penistone runners Jill Scrivens, Mandy Mallinder, Jen Holley and Kim Rogers, who made the early journey to Northamptonshire to share the occasion. Cross finished in 31-05, while Scrivens recorded 25-00, Mallinder 28-04, Holley 28-10 and Rogers 28-32. In total, the club's weekly parkrun roundup recorded 59 seniors across 26 venues. The weekend's top five age-graded performances came from Julia Johnson (87.32%), Dawn Godley (85.41%), Dawn Broom (77.49%), Richard Cottam (77.15%) and Ian Neville (74.78%).