LSARRC News 25th September 2012

Amongst the 1200 athletes and 300 teams that took part in The Northern Athletic Road Relays at Leigh Sports Village on Saturday 22^nd Lytham St Annes RRC fielded two men’s and two women’s teams. 

The courses snaking between buildings with a welcome shady section through the adjacent woodlands gave spectators many vantage points from which to watch members of their teams. And with 20 athletes in 4 teams; two men's and two women's, Lytham members had plenty to watch.

Womens squad of Fiona Geldard, Pam Binns, Dawn Bloor, Karen Lanigan, Pippa Hughes, Becs Willetts, Katharine Hoyland, Felicty Wolohan with interloper from men's team - Greg Oulton.

 

Lytham women's first leg A Team runner Katharine Hoyland was quickly back in the Club's fastest women's time of 15.29. This set Katharine at 132nd fastest in a high class field of 241, a remarkable performance for someone so new to relay running. Going off second Rebecca Willetts also ran extremely well to finish in 17.31 and one round later Pippa Hughes completed the course in a good 17.42. Dawn Bloor, another competing in her first relay, completed the team in18.28. All were delighted with a 49th finish out of a total 64 starting teams.

The B Team was led out by Fiona Geldard who ran 20.07 with Karen Lanigan on third leg taking 28.53 and Dawn Lock on fourth, 25.52. Due to an unfortunate marshalling error, second leg runner Pamela Binns missed part of the course and consequently B the team failed to make a final placing.

First off for the men’s A team was club champion Andy Draper completing the 6k course in 20:51, club coach Terry Hellings completed leg 2 in 24:42 followed by Roy Upton (23:47), Steve Quarmby (25:00), Thomas Howarth (22:38) with Graham Webster running his traditional final leg in 22:59 to bring the A team home in 69^th place. 

The B team of Colin Nelson (22:45), Greg Oulton (29:19), Roy Stevens (26:43), Bill Lock (32:08), Rob Goodall (30:18) and Richard Storey (28:19) represented Lytham well to bring the B team home in 88^th place of 111 team that started the relay.

Sunday 23^rd was the turn of the club’s junior section.  Seven of the clubs young athletes competed at the Blackpool Track & Field open in Stanley Park.   In the U9 boys category Simon Holt took a clean sweep of 3 Gold Medals with Ben Mason narrowly missing out on a medal with two fourths. Tom Reid recorded two personal bests and Saul Penn made a superb debut.  Results for the U9B 80m. Simon Holt 1^st 13.4, Ben Mason 4^th 14.3, Tom Reid 12^th 15.6, Saul Penn 13^th, 17.2. U9B 600m. Simon Holt 1^st 2:05.8, Ben Mason 7^th 2:30.8. U9B Long Jump. Simon Holt 1^st 3.04m, Ben Mason 4^th 2.69m, Tom Reid 11^th 2.13m, Saul Penn 12^th 1.86m. Brooke Marsden made a great debut in the U9girls category finishing =12^th in the 80m (15.5) and 10^th in the 600m (2:48).

In the U11B Category Ben Reid was on the podium twice with two silvers and Joe Mason gave a great account of himself, especially so in the long jump were he recorded a personal best. U11B 80m. Ben Reid 2^nd 12.00, Joe Mason 6^th 13.00. U11B 600m. Ben Reid 2^nd 1:57.1. U11B Long Jump. Ben Reid 9^th 3.22m, Joe Mason 10^th 3.16m.

Meanwhile 50 miles north  Vicki Cummings was in the lake district competing in the scenic Langdale Half marathon,  one of the toughest road races in the UK with parts of the course being as steep as 1:3.  Vicki completed the race in 2:09:43 to finish 12^th FV35.  

Andy Sneddon  ran well in the Ron Hill 74^th birthday 5k in Littleborough to record a PB of 29:34 on a hilly course.  Just 2 days later Andy donned his racing shoes again to compete in the Bredon ¼ marathon, completing the 6.58 mile course in 63:16 to finish 60^th of 90.