There have been some notable performances by Senior Runners of DCH just recently, with Scotland International Ultra-Distance Veteran (o/40) athlete Joasia Zakrzewski leading the way with superb displays of endurance over a variety of distances and terrain with equally great success. Firstly she finished 8th overall, 2nd Lady and 1st veteran in the Chesterfield Half Marathon recording a fine time of 83.33. 1 week later ran the Plusnet Yorkshire Marathon finishing 34th overall, again 2nd Lady and 1st veteran recording an excellent time of 2 hours 49 mins 4secs.This was only part of the build up 4 weeks later to the Trail World Championships (85 kms) in Portugal where she finished 117th overall, 29th Lady and recording a personal best time of 11 hours 46mins 50secs – a truly remarkable display of endurance. Just 1 week later, as a ran the Derwentwater 10 Mile Road Race and finished 23rd overall, was 1st Lady, recording a time of 63.01.All this tough racing schedule with over 10 years of experience at long distance running Joasia was chosen for the Scottish Veterans (o/40) Team at the British & Irish Masters XC Championships in Glasgow last weekend where she finished 20th overall recording 21.30 for the 6km Race, and was 6th (o/40) and picked up a Team Silver being 2nd counter for her team.
Meanwhile, veteran Matt Hornsby was making his debut at this event having been selected for the England (o/35) Team and he also did very well finishing 26th overall for the 8km Race recording a fine time of 25.25 and was naturally overjoyed being 4th counter and picking up a Team Silver for England.
GB & Scottish XC International Rosie Smith was also in action too in Scotland competing in the Scottish National Short Course XC (4km) Championships at Renfrew where she faced, amongst others, 1500m Rio Olympian Laura Muir in an intriguing contest. Rosie ran an excellent race and finished 2nd in a time of 14.00 only 40secs behind Laura’s time of 13.20, and 2 secs ahead of fellow Scot Morag McLarty 3rd in 14.02.
England XC International Dan Garbutt was also back in action too after an operation on his foot recuperation and slow build back up again and give it a good test in the Leeds Abbey Dash (10k) against strong opposition and to finish 23rd in a very good time of 30.48, only 49secs outside his personal best. Fellow Harriers and twins Jonny and Chris Wilkinson were delighted to set personal best times in the race ,Jonny was 106th in 33.10, and Chris 233rd in 35.30.