Posted on March 26, 2012 by Kate Halsall

Epilepsy Action Bradford 10k

On another glorious sunny Sunday morning in Yorkshire eight motive8 North clients and Jenny completed the Epilepsy Action Bradford 10k. Despite the clocks going forwards by an hour and the run starting at 9am (so in reality it was 8am) everyone was in high spirits and geared up for a good run!!

There were around 1,000 runners taking part, and with the course being billed as a flat course there were some good times to be expected. I completed the Bradford 10k about 3 years ago and although I remember there being a short sharp hill at the start and a slight climb at the 5k turn around point there were a few more smaller climbs than I remembered and course wasn’t as flat as a pancake as it is promoted to be! The nice thing about the run was that, unlike the Abbey Dash, there wasn’t so many runners that you couldn’t get find some space to run in without tripping up over other runners, yet there was still enough runners to give a good atmosphere and sense of camaraderie during the run.

Unfortunately I picked up a slight hamstring injury at the start of the week so I knew I wouldn’t be getting a PB, but I was determined to work hard, after all, if I was asking our clients to work hard then I would be too (not so much though that I would make my injury worse)! I completed the course in 44:28 and was the 12^th woman home and 138^th out of 917 runners so I was pretty pleased with that…..I just need to break sub 43 now and I’ll be happy!

Our fastest client was Joe O’Shea with an amazing time of 40:15 – to say this is Joe’s only 2^nd 10k this is an unbelievable time….well done Joe! Joe was also the 47^th fastest runner back. Alex Severn completed the run in 48:26, knocking 30 seconds from his time in the Abbey Dash and was 267^th over the line. Debra Plaskitt was our fastest female client with a time of 51:02 and 378^th runner home…..again a fantastic achievement to say this was Debra’s first 10k and that when she first started training with Chris she couldn’t run 1 mile without getting a stitch! Rose George completed the 10k in 55:13 and was 540^th home, again another amazing performance for her first time at a 10k. When Jenny first started training Rose after Christmas she did all of her running on a treadmill however she now runs outside twice per week! Ruth Saxton complete the run in 1:03:52 which is a great performance for Ruth, she has been training really hard with Chris for this run and it certainly paid off!! Ruth was closely followed by our gym member Amanda Renton, again her first time for a 10k run and she completed it in 1:05:46 and was 798^th back……great result for Amanda to say she only ran 10k twice in her training! Lynette Clapham, one of Jenny’s clients, equalled her Abbey Dash time with a brilliant run of 1:07:52, Lynette has seemed to enjoy training for the Bradford 10k, and although she said she wouldn’t do another 10k I’m sure she will change her mind!! Lynette’s friend Kerry Germany also completed the run in 1:04:56. By last and no means least was Peter Persico, Peter has had a bad calf injury which as a keen runner as recently stopped him from training, however as he had already entered the run he walked and jogged much of the course and finished in 1:13:05 – well done for the determination!

Sherburn Sports Relief 6 Mile

Two of our other clients Ali Carrick and Lesley Shearman also completed the Sherburn 6 mile, raising money for Sports Relief! The 6 mile run was a rather boring 12 laps around a playing field so not only a physical workout but also a mental workout in stopping boredom setting in whilst running around the same field time and time again!! Both clients achieved great times with Lesley achieving a time of 1:04 and Ali achieving 1:02 – Ali was aiming for under 75 mins so this is amazing and has also given Ali the running bug again!!

Well done everyone – great performances from you all. We are proud to have you as motive8 clients.