Personal bests were the order of the day - yet again! - for our Team Blizard runners in Lincoln, Derby, York, Bungay and Boston, with more PBs and podium finishes than we can shake a stick at!

Where do we start with what has to be considered Team Blizard’s finest weekend of racing to date - we know we have said this before, but each and every week you get better and better!

Elite Team Blizard athlete Fiona Davies WON the Boston marathon in Lincolnshire, her first race over the distance in ten years, topping the V40 national rankings with her fantastic 2:54:39 result, which also placed her fourth overall!



Her time represents an average pace of 6:40 minutes per mile, for 26.2 miles… incredible!

Not to be outdone, our Team Blizard women were in fine form in Lincoln for the annual undulating 10k yesterday, filling two of the top three positions on the day!

Coached athlete Jo Goodier excelled beyond her wildest dreams - but not beyond coach Dave Tune’s expectations! - when she obliterated her 24-year-old PB by over a minute when she placed second lady in a superb 37:19, and first V40!

Jo tackles the London marathon this weekend, and, while we don’t wish to put any undue pressure on her, the way she’s running in her heart rate zones, she is sure to run well.

Our own Jenny Blizard finished just nine seconds behind Jo in 37:28 to take the third lady spot, less than 24 hours after helping Rotherham Harriers finish 5th team overall in the national road relays in Birmingham in a superb 18:48!



First Team Blizard over the line was Peterborough-based Ben Heron from Eye Community Runners, who smashed his PB by a whole minute to post 33:18 and finish 10th overall!

Our top lactate threshold testing coach and ever-inspiring Dave Tune crossed the line six places behind in 34:04 to clock a 30 second season’s best, clinching the second V45 position too, with Clowne’s Dan Page a few seconds ahead in 33:48, finishing not far from a lifetime best in the process!



More top performances were to come from Kingstone’s Mark Havenhand, who crossed the line third V45 in a PB of 35:06, Clowne’s Peter Twigg's 36:06 was a PB by 30 seconds, while Dave’s coached athlete Ged Naylor scored a new 10k best of 37:31 to finish third in the V50 category!



Our own Ruth Jones was over the moon with her second fastest 10k in three years when she clocked 41:22, while Skegness’s Tracey Gill ran a massive three minute PB of 55:12 to finish top 20 in her V50 age group! Another top veteran performer was Doncaster's star V55 Caroline Wheelhouse, who won her age group in an astonishing 41:15!

Local boy, Tickhill’s Max Polson’s 41:44 represented a 100 second PB, and Warren Clarke battled to a gritty 40:20 to represent an impressive return to fitness following a long period of injury.

Retford were also out in force on the undulating roads of Lincoln, with Chris Pepper (37:42), David Corbett (38:30), Tammy Haywood (46:23) all running their fastest ever times for the distance, while Becky Chadwick and Lee Ellis also ran well to score times of 47:21 and 43:20 respectively.

Gainsborough & Morton Striders’ Kevin Housham enjoyed a more relaxed run in the sun with a 67:42 clocking, Shaun Boyle’s 47:55 was just seconds shy of his best, while Chris Inman’s 47:03 was also a mere 30 seconds off his life time best. 



Finally, Crystal Peaks’ Christian Burley appropriately peaked in form when it mattered when he shattered his PB with a superb 35:38 to finish 6th in his V40 age group.

Over at the national 12 stage road relays, elite athlete Phil Nicholls continued his return to the top flight with a storming run in Birmingham, where he finished second fastest on his leg in a blistering 26:44 for the hilly 5.38m course.

The ever-improving and eternally positive Kelly Raven finished 7th woman at the Vale of York 10m in a two minute PB of 69:20 - keep it up Kelly, it seems nothing can stop you!

The Derby 10k saw two storming runs from Jonty Parry and John Sanderson, who ran new lifetime bests of 43:41 and 35:31 respectively, both results seeing them knock off nearly a minute from their previous fastest times, and there were also scores of fabulous PBs at the Boston half marathon from our Skegness contingent of Team Blizard.



Another weekend, another reminder of how lactate threshold training and running to your personal heart rate zones really does pay off!