Good times were posted at Bath by all Richard Stenner 1 h 17, Martin Denman and George Rawlings 1 h 23 and Anne Wills 1 h 53.
This next part is Chris Wills' Club Captains report 1986 to 1987.
Ladies and Gentlemen (that's an over statement to start with), so I'll start again - Club members. This believe it or not will be our 4th year as Crewkerne Running Club and we have come along way since our inaugural meeting in July 1984. I remember travelling to the meeting with John Hoare debating how many would turn up . We agreed half a dozen at most. But about 25 people turned up. It showed as now that a running club in Crewkerne is most welcome recreation. It is to you the membership that I on behalf of the committee thank you for your magnificent support over the years. The club has gone from strength to strength particularly with regard to our sense of fun and fair play.'
'New Years Honours' You can forget the one where M.B.E.s , O.B.E.s etc. are dished out, my list is a short one - KING and QUEEN of the MOUNTAINS.
QUEEN - Kay Young
Only a few of us were privileged to witness a feat which desires this most prestigious award. The event occurred last year (1986) after Kay had unfortunately broken her ankle only days before the Crewkerne Mini-marathon. After a couple of months to recover Kay was determined to fulfil her obligation to raise sponsor money by running the carnival run. So it was that one summers day she tackled the course with other club members in tow. After 5 miles and approaching the bottom of shoot hill the ultimate challenge was stupidly issued - THE LAST ONE TO THE TOP IS A 'POOF' or words to that affect. With that Kay took off and beat 7 barrels out of the rest of us , leaving us floundering and weezing in her wake. Still life has its consequences as the view from behind was quite spectacular . For this she is awarded the Queen of the mountains.
KING - Bob Parsonson
Not much spectacular about this fellow just bloody minded pigheadedness and not a little determination. We all thought he was crazy and not a lot happened to change our minds.
This was without doubt the achievement of the year and second only to Kays attack on shoot hill. I refer of course to Bobs onslaught on Snowdon in November. For those who don't know Snowdon is a mountain and the marathon is reputed to be the toughest in Great Britain. No doubt Bob is totally speechless which doesn't often happen , to receive this award which is thoroughly deserved. As if doing this Marathon was not achievement enough he has 'conned' about half of the club into coming back this year (1987) with him to do it all over again. One thing we can all be sure of is that we'll not let him down and Anne will almost certainly dispute the distance saying that it was at least 40 miles (and the hills will make it 45).
Marathon Sponsorship Last year the club raised the following amounts in sponsorship:-
£6000 + Wheelchairs, £650 + Bristol M.R.I Scanner, £500 + Martin Ridley, £200 + Scouts, £200 + Crewkerne Hospital
The C.R.C is not all about running up hills (although you can't avoid them in Crewkerne) or running Marathons . This year we have had some interesting tales to tell this year.
1/ Ken Priest - 1st member to complete a triathlon. (2 mile swim , 6 mile run & 18 miles on bicycle).
2/ Crewkerne cycle weeks.
a/ Cycle touring - 30 odd miles represented by about 12 people. Clive Harwood lost his chain in the 1st two miles rendering his bike useless.
The 2nd ride was so windy that we almost had to walk down hill. Clives' legs gave out and he had a job to struggle home via a short cut. Roy Smart bought a bike purely so we wouldn't leave him behind.
b/ Cycle racing - The club entered 3 teams in this event which lapped the one way system, we ended up coming 1st, 3rd and 4th. This was an extremely dangerous event as Clive Harwood proved after almost breaking into Lloyds Bank after failing to negotiate the turn into Market street from Church street.
You might now be wondering, especially the new members, how on earth we get so much enjoyment out of this punishing exercise. The answer is simple we've got idiots in our club and they can be guaranteed to produce topics of conversation from one year to the next.
On the good Friday 22.5 miles final long run for the Marathons we experienced the worst weather conditioned imaginable. High winds and freezing rain for the last 5 miles resulted in Anne coming to a complete standstill in Martock because her legs had frozen up. Annes legs are not a pretty site at the best of times let alone when they've turned blue. Nevertheless Club spirit prevailed me, Anne and Bob P ducked into someone's open garage and massaged her legs back to life. After an hour Anne convinced Bob that he could stop. Back into the elements we went and Anne and Bob were last seen climbing pitway hill together holding hands with Bob shouting 'come on Willsy you can do it you little bugger'.
Each year we have our fair share of encounters with animals and 1986 was no exception. Bob got savaged by a Greyhound. After all he looks nothing like a Hare let alone runs like one.
One evening our juniors while doing the mini-marathon were followed back from haunted house by our old friend the Black Labrador. On arrival at Crewkerne it promptly climbed into Steve Wilbys' car demanding a ride home.
No season would be complete without tales of the gruesome twosome Anne and Kay. They may not be good runners but they are vital to the humour of the club. These two are never safe to be left on their own as they seem to always get lost . Anne has got lost twice at the Winsham wander , the second time (with Kay) they were seen climbing one of the hills in the opposite direction to everybody else. Roy Smart breathed a sigh of relief when they both decided to give the February wander a miss.
They have been attacked by all manner of road users, cars, walkers, racing cyclists (of which Kay nearly put one through a hedge) and finally dogs. They've had those that just look, those that just bark, those that seem to have trotted down the road only to appear around your ankles when you least expect it. Believe it or not all this happened on one Sunday morning run around Stocklinch where to culminate an eventful morning they were bitten on the ankles by a Jack Russell and Anne got her bum rubbed by a long haired Alsation.'
Handicap This was won by Karen O'brien with Ross Hall 2nd and Sandra Cannell 3rd. 30 'athletes' took part with 9:30 spread between first and last.