Wins for Clevedon at The Age Grader – 23rd July

Race Report by Steve Lambert

The Age Grader @ Shepperdine, Gloucestershire 23/7/23

The winners of each section and the overall winner are decided using age
grading – therefore everyone, young or old is in with a chance of a place,
in fact the overall winner of the event this year was a woman of 76.
Running for Westbury Harriers, Anne Dockery finished the 5 mile course
in 40:19 minutes which was graded to 25:46 with a percentage of 92.49%.

Clevedon AC were represented by a strong team (and me), covering a
wide age range:

Jack Last (MSen)
Ben Burns (M40)
Kieran McManus (M40)
Steve Wood (M50)
Andy Heyes (M60)
Steve Lambert (M60)

It was a well organised start, 92 competitors taking part, at 8.55 we were
organised into pens according to our age, given a briefing, then
shepherded to the rolling start line, luckily although the forecast was for
rain, it held off for the race, but there was a strong headwind on the
finishing straight. The event took place on open roads, but I don’t think
this caused problems for runners, I only encountered 1 car and the driver
was very considerate.
From my position at the rear of the field it’s hard to tell you what
happened near the front, suffice to say I enjoyed the countryside and the
views. It was a flat 5 mile course and no tight bends, very much like
Kingston Seymour, but with a power station not sewage works. I would
have liked to see a few more marshals on the course, it was getting a bit
lonely come the finish line, Morph would probably say I should have run
faster and kept up with the others 😉
The race finished back in the same field and tea & cake were very
welcome, there was also the option of beer!!

It was a smashing event, well organised and an interesting results system.
Would certainly consider it again for next year.

The leading pack of Clevedon runners had a sensational morning.
Because of the different results system it’s difficult to list everything here
however;
Steve Wood won the age graded time and was 6th in the age graded %
Steve Wood, Jack and Ben came in 2nd, 3rd, & 4th in the actual race.
Kieran in 20th and Andy at 33rd
.
Jack won the senior men and Steve Wood the M50 categories
Clevedon won the team event.
Clevedon AC 01:18:47 28 1
Steve WOOD 00:24:25 1
Ben BURNS 00:26:36 11
Andy HEYES 00:27:46

For more info on the results, as they are more complicated than usual
have a look at https://sites.google.com/site/roguerunsevents/home/results