The Wild One 2015

This year’s charity race The Wild One certainly lived up to its name this year!

Less than a week before the event, a group of travellers set up camp at Perdiswell Park, leaving the event in danger of being cancelled due to health and safety concerns.

The club struggled to find an alternative location at such short notice, but with the help of club members rallying together, Worcester’s Bishops Perowne C of E College kindly offered the use of their grounds.

In order to prepare the route, there was a significant amount of help needed to clear overgrown branches, brambles and greenery. In true BPJ spirit, a large group of club members came armed with hedge trimmers, strimmers, chainsaws and secateurs and spent hours making the route clear and safe for race day.

Race day

On race day, the kids race went smooth with 32 kids aged between 2 and 12 completing the race.

The main race saw 186 runners, consisting of 35 solos, 10 pairs and 27 teams in various club tops and fancy dress costumes take part.

Although we had to shorten the route to 1.31 mile loops, the overwhelming feedback was great as the solo runners got more support on the course and didn’t have to carry water and gels round the route. This also meant the teams of five could do single laps, resulting in some very fast times.

Solo runner Paul Nicholls kindly wrote “the race was great and the people fantastic” and “the running club are and were a really friendly bunch and gave great encouragement throughout the day”.

Dave Phillips from Massey Ferguson, another solo runner commented “everyone plus the marshals chatted to you, encouraged you, wished you well etc. Oh so friendly. BUT oh so tough”.

 

Thank you

A huge thank you goes out to everyone who’s helped out with the organisation of this race and all of the sponsors/people who have donated prizes, etc, these include:

  • Startin Skoda
  • Chris Attwood (Severn Trent Water)
  • Black Pear Physio (Chocolate)
  • Steven Busby of Stafford (Suppliers of strawberries to Tesco)
  • Youthcomm Radio
  • Perdiswell Leisure Centre and Bar (especially Kev and Elaine)
  • The Fernhill Heath Flyers
  • Ewelina (Lea and Perrins)
  • Jason Green (Marks and Spencers)
  • Mick Ward
  • Stuart Leng and PF2 Fitness
  • Bishops Perowne C of E College (especially site manager Alan ‘Smudger’ Smith)

Also thank you to all that took part on the day and came down to support. It truly was a great day, made even more special after the troubles leading up to the race.

Special mention goes to race director and club secretary Claire Shacklock, who spent countless hours and late nights ensuring everything went accordingly.

The exact total raised for Acorns Children’s Hospice is still to be calculated, but the event certainly helped raise a good amount of money for the charity, so well done and thank you!

Results

In the kids race, J Lessimore (age 10) was first boy in a time of 5:34 and first girl was C Eglesfield (age 8) in 6:10.

Peter Dimbleby from Birchfield Harriers was the first solo runner to finish in a time 3:10:14.

The first solo female finisher was Ingrid Harris from Almost Athletes in a time of 3:55:16.

The first pair to finish was Rob Minton and Sarah Bland from Stratford Upon Avon AC in a time of 2:55:51.

Team Spartan 300-295 were the first team back with a marathon time of 2:48:17, a cracking time considering they were one member down, so each member had to complete an extra lap compared to the other teams. The team consisted of Black Pear Joggers Ian Wild, Leo Taggio, Jay Richmond and Adam Jackson.

Winners of the best fancy dress prize went to Austin Powers themed Oh Behave! (Anthony Jones, Jenni Morris, Karen Pollard, Sarah Kellett and Kim Leng).

Full results are available below. If you notice any errors, please get in touch.

Results also available in XLS format for the stats geeks that want it:

Photos

Thanks to Peter Darwen (and his assistants when he was out running!), the BPJ Flickr page has been loaded with hundreds of photos of the day. Feel free to use any of the photos of yourselves. A small selection can be seen below:

[flickr_set max_num_photos=”60″ no_pages=”true” id=”72157656069992856″]