LSARRC Press Report 24th July 2012

On Monday the fourth race of the inter-club season took part at Springfield. Hosted by Wesham, over 200 local club runners took part including 29 from Lytham St Annes Road Runners.

Despite the high turnout Lytham fielded a weaker team than is the norm; except in the vet 60 category that is where the club’s exceptional form over the season continued. Graham Webster, finishing 34^th overall, was again the first vet 60 in the race. Roy Stevens in fourth and Elspeth MacPherson in seventh made up the winning trio. Elspeth was also the first woman in the category by a margin of over five minutes. Lytham are now neck-and-neck with Wesham in the vet 60 table.

Sue Samme also put in a strong performance to finish as the second lady. This ensured the ladies team finished fourth on the night.

Patrick Houghton was the club’s sole representative at Saturday’s Mid Lancs Track & Field meeting staged at Lancaster. He ran in the under-15 boys 800m and, despite this being his first track race, he produced a very commendable performance to finish seventh in the race in 2:28.7.

The Yorkshire Wolds half-marathon is one of the toughest in Britain. A 3.5 mile climb from the mile three point was just one of the challenges. The race climbs a total of 243 meters over the 13.1 miles, and this took place on the first warm and sunny day for months!

An even steeper climb between miles eleven and twelve sapped the legs but the good news is that what goes up must come down. The final half-mile is downhill and made for a fast finish for those who had any energy left.

Two Lytham runners were amongst the 213 competitors on Saturday. Vet 45 Nigel Thompson, a regular at this event, excelled by finishing sixth overall and the second veteran. Thompson claims not to be on top form and fully intends to mount a more serious challenge next year.

The club’s other representative was the club’s other Nigel, Simpkin. In the heat he managed a more humble 114^th position with a time of 1:53:40.

The following day Julia Rolfe also had a go at racing in the hills at the Bentham 10k. Describing this as the hilliest road race she has ever done Julia still manage a club silver standard time of 54:30 to finish 37^th.

At the Lancaster 10k on Thursday Joanne Bingham was 166^th with a time of 53:12.