Last weekend, in the pouring rain, Ben Smithers completed a fantastic achievement running 50 miles from Liverpool to Manchester in a time of 9 hours 51 minutes. He finished in the top hundred and won a GOLD medal. The event was superbly organised and with fantastic volunteers. Ben was able to drag himself through the pain barriers even on the transpenine trail around the 35 mile mark, thanks to his friends’ encouragement. Red Roser, Faisal Ali showed up in Disbury to welcome Ben over the line. Amazingly he said it was a Bank Holiday well spent!
Four Red Rosers ventured to the West Lancs sprint triathlon this weekend. (400m swim/ 18.5k bike ride/ 5k run). It was a slick event, organised by Epic events and attracted just over 500 competitors of all ages, abilities and bike types. Red Rose finishing times: Dave Tolson 1:11:12, Sue Austin 1:37:40, Janet Tolson 1:42:51 & Jenny Fairclough 1:43:08. Amongst the four of them there were no drownings, no punctures and no injuries during the run! They were given great Red Rose support by Debbie Porter who turned up at an early hour and gave us a huge boost.
Gina Biggs travelled to Crawley to take part in a 24 hour ultra. She covered an amazing 71 miles and got a PB on it. She warmed up with the Tilgate parkrun with a time of 35.04.
The Manchester Marathon was run this weekend with about thirty Red Rose members manning a drinks station in the final few miles of the course. Their support was a huge lift to all the runners but particularly the 23 Red Rose Runners. Excellent performances from all our runners resulted in many PB’s and achievements of longed for target times. Philip Marsden proved to be a quality runner with his time of 2.44.23 with Dave Parkinson a well placed V50 in 3.06.23. Scott Jackson finished in 3.21.22 just ahead of David Foolkes in 3.24.13. Ben Smithers showed amazing powers of recovery after his long run last week to finish in 3.44.05. Our first lady was Emily Ingham with a brilliant performance and a time of 3.45.30 followed by Paula Plowman well inside four hours with her time of 3.55.54.Glynis Leo had a very strong run with a time of 4.03.21. Amazing runs were achieved individually by all our runners. Pleasingly, some were able to share the experience with their training partners, completing the course together. Mary Conway 4.20.44, Judi Ingham 4.26.50, Louise Withnell 4.34.28, Wendy Rogerson 4.43.34, Nicola Patterson 4.43.34, Wendy Ward 4.46.03, Janice Johnstone 4.59.30, Tracey Alami 5.01.38, Helen Greenhalgh 5.11.33, Michelle Livesey 5.15.17, Jackie Brunton 5.15.17, Gareth Fairey 5.43.40, Cheryl Concepcion 5.57.11, Colin Manning 5.57.44, Faisal Ali 6.02.12.
Chris Corrigan was the lucky man taking part in the superb Paris Marathon. After only a short preparation time he still managed to finish in a time 4.24.
The Pendle Fell Race is a tough test of stamina and Gary Corcoran finished in a time of 50.14 and Pita Oates completed the course in 64.43.
The first Inter Club race was hosted by Blackpool Wyre and Fylde at Stanley Park. After heavy rain the course was awash with puddles. It didn’t dampen the enthusiasm of runners and marshalls and with a turnout of about 300 runners got the series off to an excellent start. Red Rose had around 100 runners on the night with some fine performances. Simon Croft managed a top ten finish in 21.43 for the four mile course. Samantha Edwards was our first lady home in 18th place in a time of 28.54. Ken Addison won the V60 category with a well paced run in 25.42 to lead the Red Rose V60 team to victory. The Vet 50 team had to be satisfied with second place behind Blackpool. The Vets team took 4th place, as did the Vet 40 ladies team. In the Open categories Red Rose were placed fifth. Full results on the Inter- Club Series facebook page.