Les Croupiers Running Club Forum

Well it was an amazing day. A stunning early September morning, but cool enough and still enough to make road racing near perfect. This was the 30th edition of the race - and all credit to Graham Finlayson and his team - 30 years is one hell of a long time to keep a race going. With 4113 finishers, I reckon that was the biggest ever, and the depth of the fields was absolutely outstanding. I'm sure there were lots of Croups who had an input into making this race such a success, so thank you to you all, plus everyone who stood on the side of the road and cheered.
As always, we did what we do best, and always have done, namely raced in huge numbers which always looks impressive.
Have just looked at the results - our ladies won - 4 to score - Angharad Mair, Angela Leck, Janet Holmes and Hazel Craven, and our fellas were second (to Swansea) - also 4 to score - Tes Goitem, Steve Paterson, Martin Rees and Chris Millington. We also provided 2 age category winners in Angharad Mair (F50 - 38:37) and Martin Rees (M60 - 33:20).
Here's an amazing stat - I discovered that I was 7th over 60 athlete home, and 6th Les Croupiers over 60 athlete home! Are we kings of the Old Gits or what? I'm sure loads of you ran PBs - many congratulations - you should be out celebrating.
But the final word to an amazing athlete. Martin Rees revised his own single age (62) world best from 33:47 at Bristol in May to 33:20 here. I'm not sure what I'm more impressed by - his relentless pace or his longevity. Here is the rest of his single age world 10 km marks:
47 years 209 days 30:29 Swansea 2000
49 years 192 days 30:59 Cardiff 2002
53 years 362 days 31:45 Bourton 2007
54 years 116 days 32:04 Llanelli 2007
55 years 269 days 32:02 Leeds 2008
59 years 194 days 33:12 Cardiff 2012
60 years 192 days 32:48 Cardiff 2013
61 years 205 days 33:27 Swansea 2014
62 years 190 days 33:20 Cardiff 2015
(Among the company Martin keeps: Age 40 Bernard Lagat (27:48 - can you believe that?) age 46 and 50 Steve Moneghetti).