The great weather was great for most of our runners this weekend but those taking on the Howgills Marathon and Half Marathon might have wanted a little less sun. ‘Brutal, stunning and boiling hot’, was one comment .A group of about 20 Red Rose took to the hills and had great day. Covering 26 or 13 miles over this sort of terrain is amazing and even more so that they are already making plans to return next year. These are the impressive times. Half Marathon: Mark Wardley 2.41.19, Brian Hanley 351.04. The Marathon times: Dave Brunton 4.59.53, Pete Battersby 5.03.21, Chris Hargreaves 5.09.11, Andy Birkbeck 5.17.03, John Naylor 5.29.29, Dan Hughes 5.37.18, Nicola Hughes 5.37.19, Shane Cliffe 5.47.51,Scott Jackson 5.51.48, Richard Ward 5.57.34, David Bayliss 6.09.04, Chris Corrigan 6.09.05, Greg Atkinson 6.09.06, Glynis Leo 6.09.29, Aimee Midgeley 7.06.14, Wendy Ward 8.24.37, Lorna Taylor 8.24.38, Lynn Melvin 8.24.39,Sarah Haslam 8.31.56. Once again, everyone taking part were amazed at the support and encouragement they received throughout and after the race from fellow Red Rosers.
Simon Croft won the brilliant new Chorley 10K. Over a thousand runners entered this inaugural run and were full of praise for the occasion. Simon Croft’s winning time was 34.34. Stuart Smith finished in 41.41 with Michael Oddie, our third runner in 42.08. Our first three women home were Esther Stanier 55.08, Nikki Berry 55.40 and Laura Renke 56.55. Marion O’Grady finished in 60.59 to win the F60 prize, nearly 4 minutes ahead of her nearest rival. Chris Charnley 43.44, Steven Moon 44.27, Chris Bridge 47.41, Chris Taylor 47.52, Rob Mather 48.40, Phill Berry 50 53, Pete O’Grady 51.08, Andrew Lancaster 54.59, Joel Stanier 55.08, Ste Pickering 56.13, David Barnes 56.32, Daniel Gregson 56.44, Sian King 57.42, Richard Field 58.40(Pacer), Lisa Baron 58.42, Catherine Bliss Taylor 61.37, Ian Lonsdale 62.03, Johanna Lucas 66.23, Lisa Gardner 73.45, Janette Covell 1.22.45, Jennifer Szedler 1.23.07.
The 10th anniversary of the Blacksticks Blue 10K began in the village of Whitechapel taking in a steady climb up Beacon Fell before returning to the village school. A great run from Richard Maughan saw him with the lead pack throughout the race, finally finishing in 6th place, in 39.08. Joe Swarbrick ran 41.46 to be second V60 with Simon Shaw hot on his heels in 42.08. Sarah Chippendale finished in 44.28 to be 5th female and first in her age group. Jill Jefferson was first F60 in a time of 44.54. Results: Ian Croft 45.15, Sam Hodgson 46.50, Richard Barnes 46.58, Dough Bryden 49.47, Lynne Kenyon 52.35, David Hindle 53.43, Alicia Croft 54.05, Rik Chippendale 55.34(PB), Bernie Mitchell 56.41, Julie Thorley 56.43, Heather Whelan 57.41, Alison Mercer 58.23, Michael Jeffryes 59.46, Cat Holden 60.32, Andy Verity 61.24, Andrew Baxendale 61.46, Karen Clark 70.12, Chris Clark 70.46.
Ben Smithers and Gina Biggs travelled to the Tatton Park 10k. Ben finished in 44.52 and Gina ran a PB of 52.16.
Craig Lancaster took part in the 1st ever marathon held on a go kart track. It consisted of 43 laps of St Eval Kart Circuit.
Susan Beardsworth and Lauren Hatton took part in the Blackpool Zoo 5K.
A group of runners did the Beaverbrook 10k at Blackpool and times will be posted on sportstimingsolutions.co.uk.
Keith Burrows completed a rather warm Leeds Half Marathon in 2:09:15.
The Preston parkrun topped 500 runners this weekend. Peter and Marion O’Grady’s latest 5k group graduated with flying colours accompanied by a band of Red Rose Runners. In addition to that, Phil Marsden was the first runner home in 17.37 with Matt Holmes 3rd in 17.56. Other PB’s were posted by Steve Woodruffe 20.37, Michael Oddie 20.51, David Park 21.12, Neil Houghton23.42, Hannah Clayton 29.57, Holly Smith 30.11, Patricia McDonald 34.23, Fiona Eaves. At Cuerden Valley Aimee Grime ran a new PB of 26.27. Stuart Cann reached the milestone of 250 parkruns which included organising and partaking in several parkrun tourism trip. We had a tourism presence at Worsley Woods Salford, Workington, Chester , Eden Project and probably some others.
[Weekly Roundup 14 May 2019]