LSARRC News 25th November 2014

Sylvia Gittins - 1st vet 65 at Conwy Half Marathon

There were no races on the Fylde coast this last week and runners needed to travel further afield, the closest being the Chorley Fire Fighters 10k which didn't attract any LSARRC athletes.  Instead, 2 members Ruth Wheatley and Sylvia Gittins headed to North Wales for the Conwy Half Marathon.  The race started at Conwy Castle, then went to Llandudno, around the Great Orme and then back to the castle again.  Conditions were perfect, 10 degrees, barely a breath of wind and a bright, sometimes sunny, morning.  The first four miles were flattish, then a drag up the Orme of about 3 miles, a 2 mile descent and then four back home again.  The Orme was tough for a Fylde coast runner.  Someone on recognising Ruth's vest and coming from the Fylde coast even joked about the hill.  Despite the hill though, Ruth still achieved a PB of 1:57:54 while Sylvia completed the course in 2:03:59 finishing first vet 65.

Ruth Wheatley and Tim Armitt at Conwy Half Marathon

Dawn Lock took the opportunity of a lull in the road racing calendar to go orienteering, a sport that has been in Britain for around 50 years and she has followed for more than 30 years.  Local club South Ribble Orienteering held two fixtures in the week: the third round of the popular Street League and the third and final event of the Autumn Series.

The street league, which involves a limited-time run around town streets seeking the answer to clues consisting of lamppost, hydrant and telegraph pole numbers, is hotly contested by around 50 competitors from the three southern clubs in the NWOA.  This week's event was at Penwortham with the 75 minute course won with a excellent score of 1599 points and the 60 minute course with 1041.  Lock finished 24th on the shorter course with a score of 540 points.

The weekend Autumn Series returned to Williamson Park in Lancaster after a particularly gruelling second round at Eaves Wood in Silverdale.  This time it was a cross-country where the 28 controls had to be found in the correct order in the shortest time possible.  The green course was won in a fast 37:13.  Dawn finished 10th out of 14 in 72:25 and took the W60+ series prize.

After last week's action at the second Mid Lancs Cross Country fixture at Barrow, next Saturday (29th) sees LSARRC runners heading to Sefton Park, Liverpool for the first race in the The British Athletics Cross Challenge series.  As well as being used as the European Cross Country Trials, this prestigious race is also being used as the third race in the Mid Lancs Cross Country league and so should be an excellent event.