Ryston members on the road

A couple of dozen Ryston Runners were in action at the weekend, the majority on the roads or trails.The weekend’s sport started on Saturday for the club’s road running secretary, Justin Walker, who was rewarded for his efforts in the aliens vs Trailrunners Moonlight Trails event at Rendlesham with a second place in the Men’s race, and an iridescent green trophy to take home.This set the standard for category places in the next day’s Royal Norwich Half-Marathon, which saw Ryston members taking second places in the F40 (Julie Williamson), F55 (Ruth Chadwick), and F65 (Lynne Howlett) categories.However, this mould was broken by Jit Patel who went one better in the M65 age group, taking the win.In addition to her category win, Chadwick also broke yet another club age group record, her 1:44:28 knocking more than a minute off the previous mark, set by Maureen Wolfe.There were highlights, too for Ryston’s first and last finishers: Shakur Casaleiro achieved his target of posting a qualifying time for the sub-three-hour pen at this year’s Paris Marathon, and Christopher Brockbank reaped the benefits of his commitment to the club’s Monday night training sessions by decimating his previous PB by more than 15 minutes.Ryston results (out of 800 finishers): 18/14SM Shakur Casaleiro 1:22:47, 64/39SM Thomas Semmons 1:32:19, 114/45SM Tristan Langley 1:37:53, 116/4M50 Owen Jary 1:38:23, 137/2F40 Julie Williamson 1:39:56, 202/10M55 Richard Grant 1:44:21, 205/2F55 Ruth Chadwick 1:44:28, 216 /1M65 Jit Patel 1:44:31, 224/5F45 Sarah Ellis 1:45:32, 232/15M50 Justin Walker 1:46:05, 241/27SF Ellen Ferrie 1:49:18, 293/35SF, Leonie Stimson 1:51:01, 375/152SM Cody Pearman 1:55:31, 494/2F65 Lynne Howlett 2:04:18, 535/14F50 Judith Berry 2:07:47, 596/199SM Christopher Brockbank 2:11:32.Upping the distance stakes, five Ryston members went across to Bury St Edmunds for the Tarpley 20, a tough course that builds strength and stamina, especially for those with spring marathons in mind. Dan Yallop was pleased to achieve a three-minute personal best when crossing the line with the clock on 2:08:53 as the first of the Ryston contingent in 16th place overall/fifth m40. A PB was also earned by Chris Chaplin, 66th/61st SM in 2:23:59.Christopher Cann, 165/134thsm, and James Trim 200/151st SM clocked 2:48:58 and 2:56:49 respectively.The real veteran of this event, a man with more than 100 marathons under his belt, Eamonn McCusker, took second place in the m70 category when finishing 3201st in 3:29:39. Another “lone wolf” performance of the weekend was that of Nathan Stockdale who pitted himself against the cream of the country’s cross country runners in the national cross country championships at Parliament Hill on Sunday.Stockdale finished in a very respectable 322nd place out of a field of 1800. Meanwhile, Ryston’s popular get into gear sessions return on Wednesday, March 5, for another eight sessions leading up to the Grand East Anglian RunDetails and booking are on the Ryston Runners AC community hub on Facebook, or visit: https://bookwhen.com/getintogear2025