The conditions on the day Saturday’s Bushy Park run were perfect: warm, dry and still. The enormous field, over 1000 runners consisted of four Viceroys competing for the inaugural club 5k running championship. After a season of coached track sessions and lake side runs, our 4 fastest: Alex Rothwell, Andrew Tugwell, Peter Bell and Tim Ferguson, took advantage of the conditions to all set new personal bests. 

Pete Bell had awoken that morning knowing victory was well nigh impossible – he woke up with a sore throat and aching muscles on Thursday and was still suffering… even his attempts to sabotage the event for his competitors had failed. Pete’s ally Anna (at his suggestion) had told competitors that the dress code was tri suits, helmets and flip flops – but alas, no-one fell for this.

Pete recalls: ‘My legs and chest were not happy, but I could see Andy still just ahead of me until 3km (Alex had gone) – sadly, my body started to shut down then and I lost perhaps 15 places in the last 2km. I did sprint the last 100 metres to hold my place and on crossing the line saw my watch at 18:02. Disappointed I hadn’t put in a fraction more effort to get into the 17s but all things considered I will take that time! I was pleased I held my running form and that is due to those tough track workouts with Coach Yeoman.’

Meanwhile, ultra competitive new triathlete Andy Tugwell decided to try and pace from Alex: ‘BIG mistake, by around 2k I had to try and just save my legs and run my own race(great times Alex).I was still putting in a good run for the remainder of the race and got a new p.b so was all good in the end.’

Alex was the first Viceroy around the course and finished 6th overall in 16:41, Andrew was next to finish, he was 17th in 17:33, Peter was 3rd viceroy in 18:02 and finished 32 and overall, Tim was 4th Viceroy in 20:44, 127th overall. This was a cracking event, our Viceroys pushed each other hard as their new PB’s demonstrate. Well done all.