96 Red Rose turned up for the Thornton Cleveleys inter-club race with their eyes set on furthering the success achieved already this year. It has been great to see so many of our club adding to the brilliant success and co operation between the local clubs and at the same time becoming a real force competitively. In this race, in taking second place in the overall competition, we showed again that we have made massive steps in establishing a strong core of younger runners with great potential and enthusiasm. The Ladies team also enjoyed their most successful team placing of the season also taking second place. Our first five finishers were Mo Laney, Lisa Bolton Sian McMonagle, Claire Shaw and Alison Parkinson. The Vet 40 team had a close battle to reach second place with Wesham and Chorley less than 10 points behind. The Vet 50 and V60 races were also tight but on the night Red Rose yet again secured top spot in both categories.
A good turnout for the Harrock Hill race once again saw Ken Addison lead the pack and take the V60 prize in a time of 41.51.Our first lady home was Carla Davies in 47.01. Gary Corcoran, John Naylor and Mark McCrea provided support and competition for each other , finishing in that order with times of 45,25, 45.37,and 46.12. Chris Patterson had a good early experience of this race with a time of 49.00. Claire Shaw continuing to gain experience on different terrain ran a time of 53.08. John Wiseman finished in 55.51with Anneke Crosby (55.56) and Lynn Melvin 58.00 under the hour. More team cooperation and enjoyment of the ‘fells’ came from Jenny Fairclough 64.57, Sarah Haslam 66.42,Aimee Midgley 70.48, Mary Conway 71.16 and Wendy Ward 71.59.
Run Fest Wales was the exciting destination for two of our runners this weekend. In the 10k race Nikki Bentley ran 1.12.05 and in the half marathon Gina Biggs finished in 2.51.02. Nearer home John Shepherd followed on his brilliant 8th place at the inter club with a time of 17.11 at the Lancaster 5k. Vicky Gore was on form at the same race with a new PB of 24.39 and amazingly Gina Biggs turned in another weekend performance with a time of 33.00.
Alex Venables took on the surprisingly tough Morecambe Half finishing in a creditable 1.29.23 with Sam Sleddon finishing in 1.43.17.
Parkrun news was made this weekend with Megan Gore celebrating her 50th run with a PB of 32.23 having visited 13 different events in her quest. Jenny Fairclough was congratulated at Cuerden Valley on her 100th run with the Cuerden Valley ‘family’ producing balloons to celebrate her achievement. Personal bests werealso achieved this weekend by Richard Maughan 20.35, Claire Shaw 25.40, Louise McKenna 27.01 and Jennifer Bradley 28.44. At Preston Sarah Runcie ran 27.50 and Sian McMonagle 22.26. Dave Hooton found the competition surpisingly tough when he visited Albert Park, Middlesborough were he clocked an excellent 21.13 to find he was only 4th V60 !