Benidorm 2015

1 December 2015 - By James Crisp

Whilst the Club’s vets were enjoying a run around Abbey Fields in windy near freezing conditions 34 of us were trying hard to fend off sunstroke in mid 70 degree conditions on the beach and in the med on Saturday afternoon.

Weather for the 4 days was once again excellent despite a slight drizzle greeting us at Alicante Airport early on Friday morning.
With Sherries Bar choosing to close for its winter break it was a case of the King is dead long live the King as Ron’s Bar proved to be a more than suitable replacement and only a stones throw from the Hotel which ensured a few of our number were able to stagger the short distance home at 2am. The 2015 theme song being ‘The Wonder of you’ given a rousing rendition by our Vice Chairman.
Throughout the weekend our papperazi aka Jen and Colleen ensured we were reasonably behaved whilst they were close by! Hopefully a few photos will be migrated across from the WRC Facebook site.

Once again this year many thanks to James Crisp whose TOB T shirt was updated but in a different colour for the traditional trip up to registration on Saturday morning. Although James couldn’t come along this year I believe he has one waiting for him tomorrow night.

The 10k preceded the Half and we had 6 runners including two ladies making their WRC debut so a well done and welcome to the club to Claire Eyre and Julie Hocken the latters only other run being on Saturday mornings pre breakfast 2 miler. Also running his first event for us was Chris Alabaster who with dad Terry were our first finishers ahead of birthday girl Rachel and Hubbie Mat. No results have yet been released but they will be posted when known.

In the half which started at 10am in 74 degree heat we had 19 runners all of who completed the challenging new course. Whilst our first finisher was never in doubt there were several keenly contested tussles with Tall Paul and Mark Lynch both finishing next in PBs followed within a minute by Bill and Mr Austin. Further back James held off a fast finishing Phil Martin.
Graham Eyre in his first race back following injury worked his way through the field and edged out Colleen and Adam all three experiencing Benidorm for the first time. Anita again locked horns with Colsey but the Elvis impersonator again prevailed. Penny had a very good and well judged race whilst Harry got round despite coming home at 2.30 am having been bounced on in karaoke the previous evening!
Full clip timing results below although several of us were not recorded on the starting mat and therefore took our garmin readings which all showed distances between 13.20 and 13.35!

We again enjoyed a fantastic meal at the Duomo Restaurant in the evening where a couple of celebrity chefs presented Rachel with a delicious ice cream cake. Many thanks to all of the members that came along and made it a weekend to remember.