The final Championship race for Red Rose Road Runners was the Guy’s 10 mile. Conditions were cold, wet and wintry for the 350 runners. An interesting start was caused by a ‘spooked’ horse with Ben Donoghue and Steve Gore turning ‘horse whisperer’ and sacrificing their attempts at good times. Duncan Anderson ran an impressive time of 62.42 to secure the club’s championship for 2014 followed by a close race between Ken Addison and Jose Pinon Shaw, resulting in Ken staying ahead in a time of 64.52 with Jose finishing in 65.09. Ken was placed 3rd V55 but ran faster than any V50. Ben Donoghue still managed a time of 65.56 ahead of John Naylor (69.28). A tight race unfolded with the next four runners returning within a minute. Stuart Cann finished in 70.02 with Mark Billington stalking Richard Maughan to claim a victory of 5 seconds with times of 70.13 and 70.18. Phil Butler was close to this encounter with a time of 70.34. Dave Hooton, in 73.16 was followed by Doug Bryden in 75.26.
Paula Plowman, accompanied by Steve Gore, lead the Red Rose ladies with her F50 prize and a PB of 79.33. Steve Murphy narrowly beat Steve Taylor with times of 81.48 and 81.57 with Keith Burrows following in 83.36. Taking the F65 prize, Carol Douglass ran 84.59 followed by John Plowman with the PB of the day, knocking off 9 minutes off his previous best to finish in 85.12.
More excellent efforts in the cold conditions came from Martin Simpson 86.25, Anneke Crosby 86.34,Mike Essex 86.52, Debbie Porter 88.16,George Fletcher 88.24, Yvonne Johnson 88.26, Emma Louise 89.17,Simon Kirkman 96.37 (PB), Jenny Fairclough 97.07, Allan Howard 1.41.29, Wendy Ward 1.41.54, Roger Johnson 1.46.08, Karen Clark 1.49.29, Chris Clark 1.49.33, Lydia Plackett 2.04.02.
At the Stockport 10 mile Joe Swarbrick joined over 1100 runners in similar conditions to finish in a satisfying first V55 place in 64.49. Lucy Lodge made her half marathon debut in the 3-1-5 half in Lancaster with a very promising time of 1.51.35 behind Margaret Lupton who finished in 1.48.24 and ahead of Dad, Richard Lodge who finished in 1.57.10.
At Preston Parkrun PB’s were achieved by Chris Brown who ran 20.21, Damien Russell 25.03 and Helen Greenhalgh 28.01. At Cuerden Valley Ian Waddingham improved on his first attempt by 3 minutes to finish in 25.11.