LSARRC News 28th July 2015

Wesham Inter Club

Last Monday night saw the 5th race in the Inter-Club Road Race Series.  Wesham Road Runners were the hosting club for this race providing a 4.6 mile loop from BNLF Salwick Social Club.  Weather conditions were almost perfect with just a light breeze although the marshals clearing up after the event weren't quite so lucky being caught in the downpour which followed.  A buffet was then provided back at the club's head quarters at Kirkham Cricket Club. 

First of the 248 runners home, was Rob Danson of Wesham Road Runners, continuing his winning streak finishing in 23:17, nearly a minute clear of 2nd place.  Emily Japp of Blackpool, Wyre and Fylde was again 1st female in 25th place in 27:31.  First home for Lytham was Joe Greenwood in an excellent 8th place whilst Joanna Goorney was first lady home for the club in 42nd place and 3rd female in a time of 28:47.

Richard Storey, Debbie Cooper and Dawn Lock at the IC

In the team competition, LSARRC were 5th overall, 4th in the ladies category, 4th in the Vets and 5th in the vet 50s.  The Club's best result was in the vet 60 category where they were 1st with Graham Webster, Terry Hellings and Coling Laidlaw making up the team.

Full LSARRC results: Joe Greenwood 8th 25:10; Tom Howarth 18th 26:55; Andy Unsworth 29th 27:58; Neil Tate 32nd 28:05; Simon Denye 40th 28:41; Joanna Goorney 42nd 28:47; Graham Webster 50th 29:17; Mark Willett 54th 29:35; Justin Allitt 55th 29:37; Terry Hellings 77th 30:56; Richard Storey 91st  31:32; Colin Laidlaw 106th 32:20; Mel Koth 116th 32:54; Willie Richmond 120th 33:18; Claire England 121st  33:35; Dawn Bloor 128th 34:05; Des Heron 133rd 34:25; Ian Tate 136th 34:44; Roy Stevens 137th 34:48; Nigel Simpkin 142nd 35:11; Greg Oulton 153rd 36:02; Brian Porter 163rd 36:42; Alex Everest 173rd 37:40; Jeremy McCandless 180th 38:32; Debbie Cooper 183rd 39:08; Hannah McCandless 185th 39:16; Sylvia Gittins 200th 41:02; Pam Binns 201st 41:14; Bill Lock 225th 45:27; Dawn Lock 245th 56:27;

The 3rd race in the Harrock Hill Fell Race series was on Wednesday night.  Four Lytham athletes, Terry Hellings, Greg Oulton, Hannah McCandless and Jeremy McCandless made the trip to Parbold for this fun fell race of 5.3 miles.  Unfortunately no results are available yet.

The Fireman's Relays

The Lancashire Firemen's 3 Person Relays was on Friday night where each runner took on an approximate  2.67 mile lap of Herons Reach Bridle Path, near Blackpool Zoo.  After years of past beautiful evenings, early heavy downpours promised a change in fortune for this year's race.  Just in time the rain cleared on the eve of the 7:15pm start to give ideal cool still running conditions.

A large ten-team contingent of Blackburn Harriers included nationally ranked U20 Joe Monk who zoomed round the course in a dominating 13:57 for the fastest time of the evening.

Tom Howarth, Oliver Hirsh and Neil Tate
4th team at the Fireman's Relays

A good field of 106 runners included four Lytham teams with the Club's leading team, Lytham Spearhead Attack, doing exceptionally well to finish fourth.  Oliver Hirsh led the team out on A leg, followed by Neil Tate on B and Tom Howarth on C.  Tom blasted round in a very creditable 15:13, 10th overall followed in seven places later by Tate in 15:53.  Oliver finished 60th in 19:09, his best run since injury, bringing the team back in 50:15.

The Lancashire Rockets an over sixties team consisting of Graham Webster, 28th in 16:55, Terry Hellings, 43rd in 17:51 and Colin Laidlaw, 57th in 18:56 finished 15th overall in a total time of 53:42.  Lytham Mixed Blessings, and over 65 team lead in by Nigel Simpkin in 20:25 and 77th place, came 30th in 1:10:06.  Sylvia Gittins and Bill Lock finished in adjacent positions, 99th and 100th in 24:47 and 24:54 to complete the Mixed Blessings.  An eclectic team of father and daughter Jeremy and Hannah McCandless with Dawn Lock, the Lytham Leftovers, finished 33rd in 1:14:17.  Hannah McCandless was the quickest in 21:22 beating her father for the first time by exactly one minute in 85th and 91st place respectively.  Dawn was 105th in 30:33.

The 4th Mid Lancs Track and Field Fixture took place on Saturday afternoon at the excellent facilities at Leigh Sports Village, home of Leigh Harriers and AC.  There was slight panic at the start with the minibus for Barrow and Furness Striders breaking down on route to the fixture.  With 5 officials on board, there was a quick hunt for some more so that the meet could still go ahead!  Although, sunny for most of the afternoon, there was quite a stiff breeze down the back straight.  Lytham St Annes was well represented with 6 seniors and 4 juniors making the trip.

LSARRC Seniors at Leigh

Graham Webster was the first senior man to run coming in 5th in 2.38.6 in the 800m.  He then went onto compete in the 1500m finishing 3rd in 5:43.  In the 3000m, Graham was 7th in 11.42.5, Terry Hellings was 8th in 12:23 and Greg Oulton was 9th in 13:48.6.  The men rounded the afternoon off on the track taking on the 4x400m relay finishing in 5:38.9 (Graham Webster 1:12.3, Terry Hellings 1:21, Jeremy McCandless 1:34.0, Greg Oulton 1:31.7).

On the field, in the Shot Putt, Greg Oulton was 4th with a throw of 5.93m whilst Jeremy McCandless was 5th with 5.65m. They were both in action again in the discus with Jeremy throwing 16.57m for 6th place whilst Greg was 7th with 15.72m.  Greg's last field event was the Javelin where he threw 14.15 m for 5th place.  Jeremy took part in the Hammer competition with 13.92 for 3rd place.

Joanna Goorney and Hannah McCandless kicked off their afternoon in the senior ladies 800m.  Joanna was 2nd in 2:42.2 whilst Hannah 4th 3:11.0.  In the 1500m, Joanna was 1st in 5:18.3 and was 2nd in the 3000m in 11:31.5.  Hannah ran the 200m to finish in 3rd in 37.2 then went onto the field to throw the Shot Putt a distance of 5.09m for 6th place.  This was Hannah's first track and field meet and showed great determination.

LSARRC Juniors at Leigh

The 4 juniors, James Nicholas, Simon Holt, Chloe Norman and Georgia Norman also had a full afternoon.  James Nicholas ran the U13 boys 100m in Heat 1 to finish 2nd in 13.4.  He then went on to run the U13 Boys 200m also in Heat 1 for 3rd place in 28.6.  Simon Holt, also ran the U13 200m but in Heat 2, finishing 1st in 30.00.  He also competed in the U13 Boys 800m finishing 8th in an 2:38.7.  Georgia Norman, also an Under 13, had a superb afternoon with 2 PBs, firstly in the 100m where in Heat 4 she was 1st with 15.0 then in the Long Jump where she was 7th with 3.78m. She was also 3rd in Heat 3 of the 200m with a time of  32.4.  Elder sister, Chloe also had a PB in the Under 15 High Jump finishing 4th with 1.40m. In the 800m, she was 5th in 2:32.4 whilst she was only just outside her PB in the Long Jump finishing 7th with 4:43m.

Mark Willett was in the Lakes on Saturday for the Lakeland 50, an ultra race which is a 50 mile tour of the Lake District with 3100m of ascent.  The route starts from the northern end of Ullswater and finishes in Coniston.  Mark had a great run to finish in 111th place in 11:26:00.

LSARRC News 21st July 2015

On Wednesday night, it was the Lancaster 10k organised by Lancaster and Morcambe AC.  The race which started from Salt Ayre Sports Centre in Lancaster takes in mainly quiet country roads and cycle tracks.  Stuart Robinson of Salford Harriers was first home by over 2 and half minutes in a time of 31:19.  2 LSARRC athletes made the trip up to Lancaster.  Tom Howarth was 12th in 36:30 whilst Colin Laidlaw was 82nd and 1st vet 60 in 44:57.

LSARRC runners and supporters at the Calder Vale Supper Run

13 members of the club were to be found in the  charming archetypal Lancashire village of Calder Vale on Thursday night for the Calder Vale 4 mile Supper Run.  Nominally a fun run, its four-mile length and hilly nature makes this by no means an easy race.  From the village centre there are two challenging climbs in the first couple of miles to reach the high point from where tail-enders are treated to distant views of race leaders climbing the third hill beyond Oakenclough Mill.

In spite of its low-key nature, there was still some quality running at the front end of the field with Chris Tully of Preston Harriers finishing in 21:09 with time to spare to feed other's results into the computer.  Lancaster & Morecambe AC provided the winning women: Maria Snell 10th in 23:34.  Neil Tate was the best of Lytham finishing 8th in 23:30 with Alex Everest the Club's first woman back, 57th in 31:41.  New recruit Claire Critchley in her first race for Lytham finished 71st in 34:15.
Other Lytham runners finished as follows: Richard Storey,V40, 30th in 27:52; Ian Tate, 36th in 28:43; Greg Oulton,V45, 51st in 31:09; Brian Porter, V50, 38th in 31:43; Pamela Hardman, F55, 59th in 31:46; Jeremy McCandless,V50, 68th in 33:36; Hannah McCandless, 70th in 33:42; Pamela Binns, F70, 79th in 35:20; Bill Lock, V70, 95th in 37:45 and Dawn Lock, F70, 111th in 45:35.

LSARRC at Warton Crag Fell Race

The Elswick Express 10 mile race on Saturday morning was held in warm and very breezy conditions.  Starting and finishing at Elswick Village Hall, the flattish course took in Inskip and Great Eccleston with a bag of fruit, a medal and a Bond's ice cream for the 132 finishers.  The race was won by Shaun Livesey of Blackburn Harriers in 1 00:57 with Louise Cumber of Halifax Harriers being the first lady back in 1:03:10.  Simon Denye had an excellent run to finish in 5th place in 1:02:01 whilst Joanna Goorney was 20th and 3rd female in 1:07:20.

Joe Greenwood heading towards 3rd place

Warton Crag Fell Race on Saturday afternoon provided the next race in the club's fell race championship.  Lee Parrington of Barlick Fell Runners was first back on the 9.3 km course (ascent 270m) in a time of 39:58.  Lytham's ever improving Joe Greenwood wasn't far behind to finish in 3rd place in 40:22.  Mark Selby was 27th in 50:23, Greg Oulton was 49th in 58:51, Pam Hardman was 57th in 61:36 and Jeremy McCandless was 66th in 65:43.

LSARRC at Lytham Windmill Half Marathon

Sue Hawitt in her first half marathon

Sunday morning saw the Windmill Half Marathon starting and finishing by Fairhaven Lake.  In windy conditions, first home was Conrad McKee of Blackburn Harriers in 1:18:21.  Tom Howarth was first home for LSARRC in 11th place and 1:24:29.  Neil Tate was 21st in 1:26:35. Mel Koth was 162nd in 1:45:08 and Felicity Wolohan was 322nd in 1:58:21.  For Sue Hawitt, it her first ever half marathon.  She smashed her target of 2:11 (bronze standard for her age) finishing in 377th in 2:04:03.

The previous Saturday (11th) Dawn Bloor ran the Stanley Park 5 mile race organised by Blackpool Wyre and Fylde AC.  She was very pleased to finish in 37:47 which was 28th overall,  4th lady and first vet 50.

LSARRC News 14th July 2015

Start of the St Annes Carnival 5k

The 20 Barriers Fell Race last Tuesday was selected as the 3rd race in the local inter club race series.  The 5.5 mile course starts at Carnforth High School and takes in field paths, local trails and canal towpath.  Conditions were cool and windy with the rain coming down as runners were finishing.  Unfortunately, the race didn't go without hitch with coloured tape which was being used as markers being moved sending runners who didn't know the course off on a false trail.  This mainly affected runners at the front and runners at the rear and was obviously quite annoying.  The race was won by Tom Tipping of Helm Hill in 32:46 with Lytham's Joe Greenwood having another excellent race to finish in 3rd in 34:06 whilst Joanna Goorney was 1st lady in 39:43.  Greg Oulton was 96th in 48:54, Pam Hardman was 128th in 52:15, Jeremy McCandless was 138th in 53:09 and Debbie Cooper was just behind in 53:10.  Sadly, Dawn Lock was one of the tail enders affected by the sabotaging of the course and after ending up in Carnforth Town Centre, eventually got back to the school in about 90 minutes.

Greg Oulton

On Thursday night, Greg Oulton was racing again, this time at Bull Hill Fell Race, Hawkshaw, Bury.  The race, organised by Radcliffe AC was the first race in the Radcliffe AC 3 Day Challenge.  First home in the 5.5 mile course (1099 ft of ascent) was Ashley Holt of Rossendale Harriers in 36:01 with Joanna Nelson of Darwen Dashers first lady in 42:12.  Greg Oulton was 191st out of 231 finishers in 1:00:20.

It was the annual Junior Presentation evening also on Thursday night.  This is the junior section's big social event of the year and commenced with pre- presentation games and ended with a post presentation barbecue.  It was well attended with juniors, parents, coaches and senior members.

The Coaches’ Cup which is awarded to the athlete who, in the opinion of the coaches, has shown the highest level of dedication to the sport, was awarded to Simon Holt.

Simon Holt being presented by Nigel Simpkin

Track & Field Champions – U11 Boys Simon Holt, U11 Girls Georgia Norman, U13 Boys – James Nicholas, U13 Girls Hollie Winstanley and U15 Girls Chloe Norman.

Cross Country Champions – U11 Boys Zane Seddon, U11 Girls Rebecca Tate, U13 Girls Hollie Winstanley, U15 Girls Ella Moulding.

Monday Junior Handicap Shield – 1st Ruby Hodgkinson, 2nd Shay Menzies, 3rd  Elsie Dalton

Ella Moulding represented Lancashire Schools at the English Schools championships which, this year, were staged at Gateshead International Stadium. The event is known as the Schools Olympics with competitors having had to achieve very high standards in order to be considered for selection by their county team. Ella competed in the junior girls 1500m and ran a very strong race in her heat to finish 7th in a personal best time of 4:45.16, just 0.22secs short of qualifying for the following day’s final.

The St Annes Carnival 5k Race and 1500 metre Fun Run were hosted by the club on Sunday morning.  Taking place on the town's seafront under blue skies in bright and breezy conditions, record times were the order of the day.

In the Carnival 5K, both the men's and women's records fell with the race winner, one of Britain's top-ranked junior middle-distance runners, 19 years-old Matthew Shirling of Liverpool Harriers, posting an excellent 16.37.  Hannah Oldroyd, 11th overall, finished well ahead of the rest of the women in 18.25.

LSARRC runners and marshalls

Joe Greenwood in 4th place was first home for the host club in a PB of 17.19 and with good support from Andy Draper, 9th in 18:19, and Neil Tate, 12th  in 18:32, the Lytham St. Anne's Road Runners trio collected the men's team prize.  A fine run in 19:30 for 23rd place earned 15 year old Lytham junior Michael Hayes the under-17 prize.

Claire England was LSARRC's first woman in 23:03 with another of the club's talented juniors, under-15 prize winner Chloe Norman, only 20 seconds adrift. Fiona Geldard, 25:20, completed Lytham's first- placed women's team. Pam Hardman's 25:35 was good enough to win her the W55 prize.

The finishing crew

Full LSARRC 5K results: 4 Joe Greenwood SM,17.19; 9 Andy Draper SM, 18.19; 12 Neil Tate SM, 18.33;15 Tom Howarth SM, 19.00; 22 Graham Webster M60, 19.47; 23 Michael Hayes U17 19.50;,39 Richard Storey M40, 21.40; 45 Colin Laidlaw M60, 22.08; 46 Alan Elstone SM, 22.10; 47 Dave Dunn M50, 22.15; 51 Ian Tate SM, 22.56; 52 Harry Fellows U15, 22.57; 53 Claire England, F50, 23.03; 55 Chloe Norman U15, 23.23;59 Nigel Simpkin M55, 23.50; 61 Jeremy McCandless M50, 25.12; 64 Fiona Geldard f50, 25.20; 69 Pam Hardman F55, 25.35; 82 Jim Whitworth M65, 28.00; 111 Paula McCandless W50, 34.39.

Fun Run start

The Carnival 1500m Fun Run attracted a best-ever 127 entries.  Ten year old Louis Eunson, 4th in 5.50, was the best of the club's juniors closely followed by 9 years-old Morgan Pritchard, 5:59. Twelve years-old Isla Gordon, 6:25, and 10 year old May Talbot and 9 years-old James Emsley, who finished together in 6.39, also gave good accounts of themselves. The Fun Run alone wasn't enough for 13 years-old Harry Fellows, 6:44, who doubled-up to also run the 5K.

Full LSARRC Fun Run results: 4 Louis Eunson M10, 5.50; 7 Morgan Pritchard M9, 5.59; 16 Isla Gordon F12, 6.25; 23 May Talbot F10, 6.39; 24 James Emsley M9, 6.39; 26 Harry Fellows M13, 6.44; 27 Georgia Norman F11, 6.45; 32 Redford Baines M8, 7.07; 39 Charlotte Thompson F8, 7.19; 43 Connor Norman M8, 7.27; 81Charlotte Storey F9, 8.59; 84 Sophie Tate F7, 9.19.

Louis Eunson

LSARRC News 7th July 2015

Nigel Simpkin, Alan Elstone and Roy Stevens

Last Tuesday night saw the 4th race in the 2015 Inter Club Series.  The race was hosted by Thornton Cleveleys Running Club who are new to the league this season.  The 5 mile race started between Little Bispham and the Norbreck and headed up to Gynn Square along the cliffs before returning on the promenade.  The story of the night was the heatwave conditions causing most runners to be quite down on their normal 5 mile times, some had to resort to walking.  An excellent buffet was put on by the club afterwards at the new Norcross Social Club in Bispham.  Rob Danson of Wesham Road Runners kept up his excellent winning streak to win by over a minute in 26:04.  First lady was yet again Emily Japp of Blackpool Wyre and Fylde in 31:33 and 28th place.

Graham Webster

First home for Lytham St Annes was Joe Greenwood in a superb 6th place and 28:15 whom after his recent fell race win, has found a new confidence.  Joanna Goorney was 3rd female in the race in 47th place overall  in 33:53.  Graham Webster was first vet 60 in 34:29.

Debbie Cooper and Pam Binns

Overall in the team competition, LSA finished 6th team in the Open, 7th in the vets category, 6th in the vet 50s and 4th vet 60s.  The ladies finished in 5th place.

Results: Joe Greenwood 6th 28:15; Tom Howarth 19th 31:00; Simon Denye 27th 31:40; Joanna Goorney 47th  33:53; Graham Webster 51st 34:29; Justin Allitt 63rd 35:54; Richard Storey 84th 37:23; Claire England 106th 39:02; Alan Elstone 119th 39:39; Dawn Bloor 130th 40:18; Roy Stevens 131st 40:19; Nigel Simpkin 146th 42:13; Fiona Geldard 156th 43:01; Greg Oulton 166th 44:25; Pam Hardman 169th 44:38; Jeremy McCandless 177th 45:09; Debbie Cooper 188th 47:17; Sue Hawitt 189th 47:42; Pam Binns 200th 49:15; Dawn Lock 249th 65:26;

On Thursday night, Neil Tate made his debut on the fells at the Tockholes Evening Fell Race.  Normally known just as the Tockholes Fell Race, the name was changed due to the normal course not being accessible due to work on the dam. So instead of starting in Tockholes, for this year only, the race started at the bandstand in Sunnyhurst Park, Darwen.  Organised by Darwen Dashers, the course was 7.5 km with 363 m of ascent.  Although the weather was good, the midges were also very annoyingly out in force! The race was won by Chris Holdsworth of Clayton le Moors in 33:15.  Neil finished in 20th place in 39:36 whilst Greg Oulton was 79th in 51:46.  There were 95 finishers.

The 3rd Mid Lancs Track and Field fixture took place on Saturday afternoon at Salt Ayre, Lancaster.  Five juniors and four senior made the trip.  First event of the day was the senior men's hammer where Jeremy McCandless threw 14.17m for 9th place.  Jeremy, along with Greg Oulton, also competed in the discus with distances of 15.69  and 11th place and 14.22m for 12th place respectively. Jeremy and Greg scored more points for Lytham in the javelin with 12.9m and 12.6m respectively.

On the track, Graham Webster completed the 1500m in 5:33.1 for 7th place.  Then in the 3000m, Graham  was 7th in 11:44.7, Terry Hellings was 8th in 12:45.9, Greg Oulton was 9th in 14:37.2 and Jeremy McCandless was 10th in 14:51.2.  In the 3000m team race, LSA 1st  place and 7 points.  The last event of the day was the 4 *400m relay and "fresh" from the 3000m Graham (74s), Terry (84.1s), Jeremy (100.6s) and Greg (101.8s) took the maximum 7 points.

The juniors were just active as the seniors.  James Nicholas had an excellent run in the Under 13 Boys 100m Heat 2 to finish 1st in 13.8s whilst in the 200m (Heat 1) he finished in 3rd in 29.0s.  Simon Holt also ran the 200m (Heat 2) finishing 3rd in 30.5s.  He also ran the 800m for 12th place in 2:46.1 and took part in the Shot Putt throwing 6.04m for 4th place.  In the under 13 girls 1500m, Holly Winstanley was 3rd in 5:30.  Georgia Norman was 2nd in 31.4s in the Heat 2 of the under 13 girls 200m, 11th in Heat 1of the  800m in 3:08 .6 and 8th in the long jump in 3.69m.  Chloe Norman ran the under 15 girls 800m to finish in 3:32:.8 for 5th place.  In the long jump she was 10th with 4.31m and was 2nd in the high jump with 1.35m

It was the Blackpool Hilton Half Marathon on Sunday morning.  The race was won by Peter Lighting of Kent AC in 1:16:05 and had 146 finishers.  The club's sole representative was Neil Tate who finished in 11th place in 1:29:34.