Last Wednesday evening, this year’s Sexarathon came to a conclusion with the traditional end of summer 5k race, the “Harper Scarper”, which, as its name suggests, takes place at Harper Adams University. The course is a 1-lap “lollipop” course, which takes in the lanes, tracks and woodland just to the north side of campus. This year’s race concluded the 40th edition of the Sexarathon, and the commemorative t-shirts and prizes reflected this.
Newport & District Running Club were well represented as always in this series, and it was Alex Millington who led the Novaportan contingent home, finishing 16th overall in a time of 17 minutes, 13 seconds. Robin Guy took 40th place overall, and with it a special prize to mark the 40th anniversary of the race, with his time of 18:36, whilst Alex Cochrane was 65th overall in a time of 19:47 and Peter Johnstone took 81st place in 20:14. David Brown clocked a time of 20:30 to take 89th position, whilst Philip Hill was 116th in 21:29 and Phil Dolding took 128th place with his time of 22:08.
Graham Rogers placed 139th with a time of 22:49, just ahead of Philip Link, who was 144th in 22:56. In place was David Evans, who stopped the clock at 23:30, whilst Amy Hughes was NDRC’s first female finisher in 24:08, which secured her 178th overall. Carrie Stokes took 197th place in a time of 24:47, closely followed by Helen Mason, who was 200th overall in 24:55. Oliver Stokes stopped the clock at 26:08 to finish 224th, whilst Ralph Humphries was 240th in 00:26:44, just ahead of Nick Wylie, whose time of 27:01 secured him 248th position.
Simon Taylor was 251st in 27:06, closely followed by Selwyn Plant, who was one place back in 27:13.Heather Campbell-Miles was next, taking 268th place in 00:28:16, followed by Louise Patterson, who finished 279th in 28:39, and Kevin Nicklin, who finished 298th with a time of 28:44. Elizabeth Holbrook stopped the clock at 29:54 for 287th place, closely followed by Mathew Richards, who was 292nd in 30:07 and Rodney Jones, who clocked 30:24 in 294th place. Matthew Humphries finished 306th overall with his time of 32:39, whilst Steve Cannon was 308th in a time of 32:50.
1/9/24: Hinstock 10k
On Sunday, five members of Newport & District Running Club made the short trip up the A41 to take part in the Hinstock 10k, a 1-lap road race on the roads in and surrounding the village. Starting and finishing on Manor Farm Drive, the route took runners on a loop of Marsh Lane, before leaving the village to complete an anti-clockwise lap of the lanes in the surrounding countryside, before passing the church on their way to the finish. The route featured around 27 metres of elevation gain with some uphill sections from around the 2-mile point.
Robin Guy finished 7th overall as the first Novaportan finisher, but in an unknown time (possibly due to technical issues!). Alex Cochrane was next, clocking a time of 42 minutes, 5 seconds in 18th place overall, whilst his uncle, David Evans, finished 45th with a time of 50:24. Elizabeth McEvilly ran a time of 1:00:43 to finish 90th, whilst Mark McEvilly was 112th in 1:05:02.
