The big race of the weekend for Red Rose was the Roddlesworth Roller. Stuart Cann led the team home and took the 3rd V50 position in 39.03. John Naylor ran 40.00 with Phil Butler next in 41.15. Fred Lynch took the V60 honours with a time of 41.50. There wasn’t much space between the next quartet with a healthy battle being fought by Barry Wheeler 42.04, Gareth Bell 42.27, Stephen Woodruffe 42.27 and Mark McCrea 43.03.Ian Wharton ran 45.46 staying ahead of Ray Taylor (45.58) but who was rewarded with 2nd V65. Our other successful vets were Anneke Crosby 2nd F40 in 48.56, Joan Gouldthorpe 3rd F60 in 54.47, and George Fletcher 1st V70 in 57.57. Complete results: J. Wiseman 46.48,D.Porter 50.25, J.McClean 51.25, A.Speer 51.50, Vicky Gore 51.55, Austin Trelfa 51.57, Anees Shaikh 52.47,C.Shaw 53.22, P.Oates 56.24, G.Fairey 56.33, R.Johnson 57.17, Y.Johnson 57.26, S.Austin 57.27, A.Howard 58.33, H.Orson 60.08, D.Millar 61.38, W.Ward 63.44, M.McCormack 63.45, K.Clark 68.02, C.Clark 68.49, R.Mulligan 78.26,L.Plackett 79.44.
The children who took part in the Daffodil Doddle all ran well with Lucy Clipston finishing in 12.04, Briar Hargreaves 14.12 and Sophie Hill in 14.18.
The Jackals 10k and half marathon was held in Darwen, beginning in Sunnyhurst Woods taking in a climb to Darwen Tower.Lorna Taylor,Steve Taylor and Graham Roberts ran the 10k and Lynn Melvin and Bernie Mitchell took on the tough half and enjoyed a real challenge.
At the Sweatshop 10 mile, a great run from Ciarron Roddy was only 3 seconds short of the classic one hour barrier. Mark Willett had a strong run with a time of 67.26. Alison Mercer maintained a 9 minute mile pace for a time of 90.58 and Maggie Farragher finished in a creditable 96.00.
With the first 28 athletes under 30 mins and 51 finishers inside 31 minutes, the Trafford 10k can justifiably claim to be PB terrain despite the many pot holes on the closed country lanes. 3 Red Rose Road Runners Philip Davidson 43:42 (43:30), Ruth Travis 45:38 (45:09) and Damien Russell 46:35 (46:25) ventured to Partington, South Manchester for the well organised, fast, flat course with chip timing. Ruth’s chip time of 45:09 was her fastest 10k finish since 2012 and secured her an impressive 16th place in the F40-44 category.
Red Rose Road Runners Jon Wright and Stuart McNair both completed their first Parbold Duathlons on Sunday in the approximate times of 01:55:30.05 and 01:57:14.35 respectively for the 5k Run, 27k, 5k Run course from the Farmers Arms Parbold. Jon’s splits of 26:35, 01:01:01 and 25:45 secured him 8th place in the MV50 category, 64th overall whilst Stuart’s times of 22:29, 1:06:01 and 25:42 placed him 31st in his final year as a MV40 and 73rd overall. This NW classic duathlon is not for the faint hearted, consisting of 2 undulating 2.5k run laps on rural country lanes followed by 3 laps of a 9k bike loop which includes the ascent of Parbold Hill and the descent of Hunters Hill on each loop. The 5k run is then completed for a second time as your legs turn to jelly. Blessed with beautiful weather this year, the ascent of Parbold Hill hurts whoever you are!
The finer weather conditions for the local parkruns helped 13 Red Rose to new PB’s and a further one to set a new age category record. As ever, Cuerden Valley was inundated with Red Rose both running and volunteering. Karl Hodgson headed the top performances with 2nd finisher in 18.27, Daniel Hughes was 3rd in 18.56. Liam Hooton knocked another 5 seconds off his time to maintain his run of successes. Even more PB’s followed for Austin Trelfa 26.22, Gareth Fairey 28.50, Kate Clipston 28.55, Sarah Haslam 31.03 and Lisa Hyde 33.07.
At Preston, Joe Swarbrick finished 7th in 19.04 to become the new V60 age category record holder. In 8th place Sam Harrison got a PB with 19.09 and in 9th Richard Maughan improved with his time of 19.14. Margaret Lupton showed her return to great form with a time of 26.17 and Alice Lodge got a new PB of 28.28.