LSARRC News 20th September 2016

Barbara Holmes on her way to victory

Another busy week for Lytham St Annes Road Runners had athletes competing from Lytham to Mexico.  The undoubted highlight was Barbara Holmes participation in the World Triathlon Championships in Cozumel, Mexico on Thursday.  Barbara competed in the female 55-59 age group consisting of a 750m swim, a 20k bike ride followed by a 5k run.  Holmes finished the swim in 13m 11s just 3 seconds behind Australian rival Sally Musgrove but gained 28 seconds in transition and a further 31 seconds on the 20k bike ride completed in 33m 49s to leave her with a 59 second lead.  Barbara gained another 28 seconds in transition 2 leaving her 1:27 lead going into the 5k run.  Barbara completed the run in 23:37 to finish 53 seconds clear of second place to become World Champion in her age category. 

On Saturday and closer to home Debbie Cooper, a regular competitor in Ultra events who has previously completed a 100m race, headed to Derbyshire to run the High Peak 40.  A tough 40 mile run with 4600 feet of climbing around the hills of Buxton.  Debbie completed the race in 8 hours 1 min and finished as 2nd woman. 

The English Half Marathon and 10k road races took place in Warrington on Sunday 19th.  Lytham had 2 representatives in the Half Marathon, Ian Tate finished in a personal best time of 1:37:03 for 236th place from 2182 finishers with Michelle Hook not far behind also running a personal best time of 1:41:58 for 382nd place and 31st female.  Andy Draper, returning to form, ran in the 10k and performed well to finish in 4th place in a time of 35:05 which is also good enough to take him into the lead in the club road race championship.

Mel Koth ran in the Yarrow River Splash, a scenic one lap race through woodland, following the river Yarrow, starting and finishing in the Yarrow Valley Country Park, Chorley and including a crossing of the river Yarrow.  Mel finished 26th and 3rd female in 54:16.

Two of Lytham’s 10 year old athletes George Denye and Eric Wrigley both competed in the 2k Avenham Park parkrun with George finishing 2nd in 758 and Eric 15th in 9:42.

Gerry Browne at Lytham Hall parkrun

Lytham also had their usual good turn out in the Lytham Hall parkrun with 16 members taking part and many more marshalling.  Kirsten Burnett and 10 year old Charlie Wiltshire both ran personal best times of 27:14 (93rd) and 24:28 (58th) respectively.  First home for Lytham was Joanna Goorney in 12th place with a time of 19:53.  Other Lytham finishers were Neil Baytun-Roberts (14th, 20:01), Neil Tate (16th, 20:20), Gerry Browne (36th, 23:04), Claire England (43rd, 23:44), 10 year old Morgan Pritchard (48th, 24:04), Graham Webster (50th, 24:05), Louise Denye (68th, 25:14), Rachael Wignall in her first parkrun (98th, 28:04), Gillian Oliver (115th, 29:12), Jeremy McCandless (119th, 29:36), Sarah Bradshaw (122nd, 29:43), Des Heron (142nd, 32:04) and Lorna Cragg (173rd, 36:45).

LSARRC at Malham

This weekend also saw a depleted squad of 6 Lytham athletes head to Malham for the latest of their biannual training weekends.  A tough training weekend of 5 runs of varying distances over 2 days and all of them hilly!  Hard work but enjoyable and all done in glorious weather with the beautifully rugged countryside of the Yorkshire Dales as a backdrop.  Lytham are already making plans for their next training weekend in Grasmere in spring 2017.

LSARRC News 13th September 2016

Juniors and coaches at North West Counties Road Relays

In a busy week for Lytham St Annes Road Runners, the highlight was undoubtedly the North West Counties Road Relays held at Delamere Forest in Cheshire on Saturday.  Lytham entered seven teams, two senior men’s, one senior woman’s and four junior teams (a best ever turn out for the flourishing Lytham junior section).

Amara Thorpe sprinting to finish

First race was the under 11 boys and girls racing together over a 3 legs of 1.6km each.  George Denye was on the first leg for Lytham boys and finished in second place with a time 6:06 the fourth best time of the day in the under 11 boys race.  Morgan Pritchard ran the second leg in 6:52 with 8 year old Eric Wrigley in his first race for the club bringing the team home in 7th place overall and 2nd Lancashire team.  Amara Thorpe ran the first leg for the under 11 girls finishing in 7:34 (2nd Lancashire team) handing over to Jessica Ramsden who competed the course in 7:47 unfortunately a late injury to the 3rd leg runner meant the team was incomplete. The under 13 girls were next to race for Lytham.  Sophie Bohannon ran the first leg and despite taking a fall in the crowded start and competing with girls up to 3 years her senior finished the 3.2km course in 7th place overall and 2nd from Lancashire recording a time of 14:24 (the 8th quickest time of the day from 97 competitors).  Rebecca Tate (18:40) and Sydney Ramsden (16:21) brought the team home in 24th place overall and 4th Lancashire team.  Final junior team for Lytham was the under 15 girls’ team of Laura Bremner (16:27), Lucie Bohannon (18:17) and Hollie Anderson (19:13) all making their debut for the club and each running a 3.2km lap of the lake finished 23rd overall and 4th Lancashire team. A great turnout from Lytham juniors and some good performances.

Under 15 Lucie Bohannon

Both the men’s and women’s race was advertised as 6.4km per leg but was nearer 7km.  The women’s race was over 3 legs and Lytham’s senior women’s team of Mel Koth (31:11), Louisa Ruman (35:37) and Sylvia Gittins (42:22) all ran well to finish in 59th position overall and 12th Lancashire team.  The men’s race was over 4 legs of the same 2 lap course and Lytham had two teams. The A team was led off by Chris McCarthy  who finished the 2 lap course in 25:00,  Second leg runner Ross McKelvie finished in 25:57 with 3rd and 4th leg runners Tom Howarth (26:42) and Neil Tate (27:43) bringing the team home in 34th place overall  and 8th Lancashire team in a total time of 1:45:22.   The B team of Terry Hellings (30:24), Richard Storey (31:29), Greg Oulton (36:57) and Graham Webster (28:45) finished 70th  team overall and 13th Lancashire team.

Mel Koth returned to Delamere Forest on Sunday for the tough Mondane Trail half marathon a hilly course with several streams to negotiate.  Mel ran well to finish 55th of 219, 5th female and 3rd FV40.

Nine Lytham members made it to the Lytham parkrun with Neil Baytun-Roberts first Lytham member home in 20:01 for 10th place.  Charlie Wiltshire, (66th in 26:22), Freddie Wiltshire (108th in 30:33) and Pam Binns (110th in 30:40) were all making their parkrun debut with Pam setting a new VW70 record for  the Lytham parkrun.  Other Lytham finishers were Gerry Browne (34thin 23:19), Sue Hawitt (43rd in 24:43), Graham Young (78th in 27:59), Sarah Bradshaw who ran a new pb of 29:19 for 93rd place and Jeremy McCandless (104th in 30:20).  Ian Tate ran in the Warrington parkrun taking 25th place in a new pb of 21:07.

LSARRC at Red Rose Inter Club

Wednesday was the seventh and final race in the inter club road race series hosted by Red Rose
Road Runners and run in and around Worden Park, Leyland.  Nineteen Lytham made trip for the 4.3m race and Joe Greenwood first home for Lytham in 24:59 for 7th place.  Chris McCarthy was next in 12th place in 25:54 closely followed by Ross McKelvie (18th, 26:12).  Graham Webster (58th, 4th MV60 in 29:01), Terry Hellings (86th, 7th MV60 in 30:42)) and Roy Stevens (131st, 10th MV60in 33:56) made up the vet 60 team and finished 3rd team in the Vet 60 category.  Other Lytham finishers were Thomas Howarth (28th, 27:07), Michelle Hook (81st and 9th female in 30:34), Ian Tate (91st, 30:46), Melanie Koth (99th, 31:50), Richard Storey (118th, 32:58),  Colin Laidlaw (145th, 34:38> Greg Oulton (168th, 36:39), Jeremy McCandless (198th, 29:53), Pat Bullen (215th, 42:39), Ruth Bye (225th, 44:52), Sarah Bradshaw (233rd, 45:39), Sarah Bagshaw (240th, 48:06) and Dawn Lock (247th, 53:10).

New member Kirsten Burnett headed to the North East to join Mo Farah and over 40,000 other athletes to take part in the Great North Run, Kirsten finished in 2h 22m 20s for 23329 place from 42,000 finishers.

LSARRC News 6th September 2016

Roy Stevens and Sue Hawitt

Two Lytham athletes, Roy Stephens and Sue Hawitt ventured to Lancaster on Sunday 4th to compete in the Golden Ball 20 mile race.  Roy finished in 33rd place with a time of 2:48:30 and Sue in 3:17:07 for 56th place.  Both are preparing for Autumn marathons Roy Stevens an old hand at marathons will tackle Dublin while first time marathon runner Sue Hawitt will toe the line at Chester marathon.

Richard Storey opted for UKFast Salford City 10k and was the sole LSARRC representative.  The race uses a flat course around Salford Quays starting and finishing just outside the BBC building at Media City and passing the Old Trafford football stadium along route. It's also popular, with this year's event attracting just under 3000 runners. Conditions were good for fast times with the first 97 finishers all going sub 40 minutes. The race was won by Mohammad Aburezeq of Altrincham & District AC in 30:03. Richard had a good run, recording his fastest 10k time for a number of years to finish in 265th position with a time of 43:46.

Sarah Bagshaw with a parkrun PB

Saturday was the 38th Lytham Hall parkrun and Lytham were well represented with 14 members taking part and many more marshalling.  Two Lytham athletes achieved personal best times.  Sarah Bagshaw (a graduate from the Lytham beginners group) finished in 31:35 (135th) knocking nearly 40 seconds off her previous best with Karen Lanigan finishing in 29:50 (107th) also improving on her previous best by 40 seconds.  First home for Lytham was Ross Mcelvie in 7th place with a time of 18:33. Lytham also took 8th and 9th positions with Neil Tate (18:46) and Chris McCarthy (18:56).  Other Lytham finishers were Alan Elstone ((21:22, 22nd), Terry Hellings (21:26, 23rd), Gerry Browne (22:10, 31st), 10 year old Morgan Pritchard running and his regular pacemaker were both timed at 23:36 for 43rd and 44th places, Graham Young 28:00(88th),  Gillian Oliver 29:08 (101st), Sarah Bradshaw (31:26 (131st) and Lorna Cragg 29:0 (195th).  

Mel Koth

Meanwhile Mel Koth took part in the Lakeland Trails Keswick 15k.  Bad weather meant the course had to be changed for safety reasons and the 15k race ended up as 16.5k with an extra 100m of climbing.  Mel, an experienced athlete with many tough races under her belt (including several marathons) said this was one of the toughest races she had ever done.  Underfoot conditions were very wet with deep mud Mel was pleased to finish unscathed in 108th place in a time off 1:38:57 (unlike several athletes forced to retire with broken bones).

The following day 10 year old George Denye and 8 year old Eric Wrigley were fyling the Lytham flag at the Preston junior 2k parkrun.  George finished in 2nd place in a time of 7:59 only being beaten by Preston athlete Joseph Gaughan 4 years his senior.  Eric ran very well to finish in 6th place with a personal best time of 9:29.