LSARRC News 12th December 2012

U11 Boys Simon Holt and Harry Booth at Kendal for XC

Competition spirit warmed up the cold winters day which greeted Lytham runners at the beautiful Crooklands, Kendal, on Saturday for the third fixture of the Mid Lancs Cross Country series. A short hilly course was the order of the day, the number of laps varying according to category.  Three junior members of the club ran the event. In the U11 boys race 8yr olds Simon Holt and Harry Booth both gave good accounts of themselves with Simon finishing 32^nd in 7:48 and Harry 40^th in 8:16. In the U13 Girls race Emma Moulding produced a fantastic run to finish 7^th in 11:14.  The senior ladies were out to make their mark and defend their place in the 1^st division, following a 6k, 3 lap course. Katharine Hoyland was home first for the Women’s team (29:37), followed by Felicity Wolohan (31:29), and Catherine French (33:50). In close pursuit were Julia Rolfe (34:55), Fiona Geldard (35:39), Janice Cobley (36:18), Pamela Binns (38:10),Sylvia Gittens (38:13) and Dawn Lock (in under 60 min). LSARRC now proudly top the VF55 category in this competition. The senior men's team, following a 10k four lap course, was lead by the usual suspects of Andy Draper (38:17), Tom Howarth (39:54), Graham Webster (40:55), Terry Hellings (42:20), closely followed by Steve Quarmby (45:40) and Mark Selby (46:11) completing the 6 team members to count. Squad performances also came from Stan Greenhalgh (47:19), Colin Nelson (47:52) and cross country debutante Andy Sneddon (1:03:49). Greg Oulton started but was disappointingly unable to finish due to injury. In finishing 12th out of 22 teams and with early success in Burnley, the men’s team has every chance of moving out of the top of division 4 and gaining promotion back into division 3. In summary, another fantastic day for LSARRC XC.

The Senior LSARRC XC Squad

Colin Laidlaw strides the Longridge  7

On Sunday Lytham club members Colin Laidlaw, Sylvia Gittens and Vicki Cummings took part in the Longridge 7 mile race. The event followed a tough hilly course, but one which affords great views over the valleys. Laidlaw put in a pleasing performance, passing 5 or 6 runners on mile 4 up Jeffery Hill and maintaining his position to the finish. He completed the race in 52:05, 58^th place in a field of 213. Vicki Cummings was 152^nd overall, finishing in 1:04:32 and Sylvia Gittens was 171^st to complete in 1:08:15.

 

‘Team Ashworth’ were away to Bradford for a weekender at the start of December and whilst away they competed in the inaugural Bradford City 10k run. It took place on a glorious cold and crisp winter morning, with both Laura and Kev enjoying the course (despite all entrants running about 1k short of the ‘10k’ distance due to a marshalling error). Laura did exceptionally well to scoop the prize for first lady V35 (chip time of 38:58), whilst Kev too had a decent run to finish 61^st out of the total 538 competitors with a chip time of 35:41.

Rob G and Debbie C gaining their lead on the bikes!

Rob Goodall and Debbie Cooper set up a race challenge with pals around the Tocholes and Darwen Moor area on Sunday. It involved a 5.2 mile trail/fell route with about 700ft of climb, Debbie and Rob running, the other 2 competitors on mountain bikes. The bikers took an early lead with the downhill start but by the first mile the runners caught them on the hill out of Tocholes wood and then extended the lead on the climb up to Darwen Moor. The runners knew the hills would favour them but anticipated that once on the moor, the bikes would chase them down. However, the recent weather made conditions difficult atop the moor, particularly for the bikes, forcing them to dismount and push for for good sections. The runners, oblivious to their advantage, still pushed hard, and with the last mile mostly downhill, made it their quickest mile of the day to finish in just over an hour. The bikers had had it hard over the tops and approached the finish about 20 minutes later. The biking contingent have requested a re-match next year, hoping that fairer weather might swing the result a little closer!