Beverley Athletic Club’s Chris Woolner was proud to fly the flag for his club in the Caribbean last Saturday when he ran the Grand Bahama Classic 10k.
Chris is the First Officer on the Royal Fleet Auxiliary vessel Fort Rosalie which is currently alongside in Grand Bahama. He was joined in the 10k race by several officers and crew who, like him, found it hard to resist the promises made in the pre-race advertising:
“A fun filled 10K Classic Race Weekend designed to be filled with interesting competition, social excitement and personal fulfilment with athletes participating from around the world. The 10K Classic is truly a treasure box of fun, relaxation and pure excitement for all sponsors, participants and spectators.”
Chris’ target was to beat his personal best for a 10k, 52:52, which he set in Walkington last year. The race start and finish in the hot morning sunshine on Taino Beach was in stark contrast to Walkington Playing Fields on a blustery July evening.
The race route took runners on roads around Windsor Park. On the outward section along Midshipman Road and East Sunrise Highway runners had the sun on their backs but on the return via Colorado and Royal Palm Way they had to run into the bright hot morning sun.
After doing most of his training on the shop’s treadmill Chris was delighted to finish the race in 11th place in a new personal best time of around 48 minutes. Official results are not yet available but this is a significant improvement on his previous best.
After the race Chris celebrated his success with a few cool beers with his shipmates.
As he will not be returning home until the end of June he is hoping that there will be other races to take part in during the next few months. If not he can look forward to the next Walkington 10k on Friday 6 July and see if he can improve his time still further.
Reported by Kay Farrow
