Terry O’Gara 5km – 10/4/22
To Carbon or not To Carbon, that is the Question?
The spring racing calendar brings out the fast athletes after a winter on the country and with a fast course, a very good standard of entries, the weather gods being kind and super carbon shoes in abundance, the 10th Terry O’Gara 5km was set up as a PB utopia and it didn’t disappoint. Seven JJs took to the start line and with its super-fast start, some runners fell with one of them sustaining a broken wrist in the opening melee. Diggory Slee was able to avoid the melee, as did all of the other JJs thankfully, and soon got in to his running to record a new PB of 17:17. Tom Dowling wasn’t far behind with a great time of 17:51, a new PB and over a minute off his last 5km at the Cowbell Race a few weeks ago. Cliff Veitch, Izzy Sharrock and Simon Wells ran as a triumvirate for the first two miles with Simon and Cliff swapping places a couple of times until Cliff bounded past Simon on the way to yet another JJ PB on the day with a 19:48 clocking. Izzy bided her time and made her attack with the 4km mark within reach and raced to another JJ PB with a time of 20:29. Simon vainly tried to chase her down in the long 800m finishing straight but to no avail, with Izzy’s younger legs moving her in to 9th senior female on the day. The duo of Geoff Blair and Tim Cook battled round the course to record a 2nd and 3rd finish in the NE Masters (NEMAA) Championship M60 race.
In a strong field the JJs did well in the NEMAA 5km Championships, with Tom 6th M45, Simon 5th M50 and Cliff 6th M55. Former JJ, Jonny Law, also set a new PB of 16:36 to finish 19th senior male. Great running from all
42nd Diggory Slee 00:17:17 Sen M 29 PB
59th Tom Dowling 00:17:51 V45 6 PB
105th Cliff Veitch 00:19:48 V55 6 PB
122nd Izzy Sharrock 00:20:29 Sen F 9 PB
133rd Simon Wells 00:20:40 V50 5
155th Geoff Blair 00:21:49 V60 2
167th Tim Cook 00:22:08 V60 3
237 finished.