Race Report: Knowle Fun Run, Solihull, UK, 18th May 2014

This race report was sent in by Dave Carter:

SUNNY WEATHER HAILS SUCCESSFUL FUN RUN

The hot and sunny weather brought Knowle residents out in their thousands last Sunday to cheer on the runners in this year’s Knowle Fun Run.

‘It was really tough this year, especially with the sun blazing down on us all the way twice round the course’ said runner Director David Hofton from main sponsors Hunters Estate Agents. ‘The Lions work really hard to make a success of this great community event, they deserve all the accolades they receive.’

This year’s overall winner Yousef Allataa from Birmingham, a late entry on the morning, beat local resident Zac Nolan by a close margin.

We had two hat-tricks this year – Trevor Prickett 1st Super Veteran and 1st adult female Jane Evans both recorded their third wins in 3 years. Pleased with her time in the heat Jane said ‘few runners will have managed a PB(personal best) this year due to the heat’

Organiser Noel Kinahan said ‘Fortunately we had extra water in store for our next fundraiser – the Heart of England Bike Ride on 24 July, and with residents setting up water stations around the course runners were able to take on extra fluids.’

Category Race Number Name Time

1st overall 1555 Yousef Allataa 29:34:00

1st local 651 Zachary Nolan 29:38:00

1st adult female 1136 Jane Evans 30:31:00

1st superveteran 727 Trevor Prickett 38:17:00

1st veteran male 225 Gavin Davies 31:30:00

1st veteran female 668 Amanda Oleary 34:07:00

1st secondary boy 824 Alexander Smith 32:57:00

1st secondary girl 649 Abigail Nolan 35:33:00

1st junior boy – 2 laps 1170 Edward Grantham 43:12:00

1st junior girl – 2 laps 878 Ellen Taylor 37:21:00

1st junior boy – 1 lap 2003 Toby Bennett 17:38:00

1st junior girl – 1 lap 2009 Tanith Cox 20:29:00

Winners of the team events this year were:

Team Name Aggregate time

Junior Lady K Leveson A 04:19:13

Secondary Solihull & Small Heath AC U17s 02:28:41

Adult Knowle & Dorridge RC Men 1 02:04:59

Don Maclean, set the runners on their way on the stroke of midday. ‘We are grateful to one of our nominated beneficiaries, Northleigh House school, who offered to invite Don along’, said Noel. ‘Toegther with the Hollywood Monster he did a great job entertaining the Mini Runners and gave words of encouragement for the Fun Runners about to set out on their 2 lap run. He is a true professional and really nice guy’.

‘We were delighted to have over 2000 entries for this year’s Fun Run & Mini Runs’ said Noel. ‘The Lions were grateful for the continued sponsorship from many companies who helped cover the costs of staging the event. We really appreciate how lucky we are to have the support of a long list of local companies. This enables us to tell runners that every £ of entry fee, donation or sponsorship raised will go to our nominated charities, which also included VisionCare, The Brain Tumour Charity and other local causes. We hope to have raised over £40,000 when all the runners sponsorship has been received. Many runners raised funds for their own favourite charities and we shall never know how many thousands of pounds to add to that we receive’

The day started well when 250 under 9 year olds took part in 4 Mini runs wearing their complimentary Fun Run t-shirts were cheered around the Arden school fields all keen to pick up their Mini bar and certificate of achievement. The winners all received trophies & gifts courtesy of MiniRun sponsor Sytner Mini.
‘It’s great to have a team organising such a popular and successful community event,’ said President Noel. ‘It takes well over 6 months effort for some of our Lions and 200 helpers on the day, we now have to thank so many people, too many to mention here, who helped to ensure the day went off without a hitch. Anyone interested in ensuring the continued success of the Knowle Fun Run should contact the Knowle and Dorridge Lions now via 2014@knowlefunrun.org.uk