LSARRC News 27th October 2015

LSA Ladies at Townley Park

Saturday saw the second Mid Lancs cross country meet of the season from Townley Park, Burnley, resplendent in Autumn colours and with the beautiful Townley Hall as a backdrop.  Unfortunately for the juniors, the forecast rain came but luckily it had ceased by early afternoon for the senior races.  With the dry conditions of the last couple of months, the course was fairly firm with very little mud around.

Louis Eunson

Rebecca Tate

There were five juniors in action from the club.  In the Under 11 girls, Sydney Ramsden was 48th in 9:00.  There were 66 runners in the under 11 boys with Louis Eunson having an excellent run to finish 4th in 7:00 whilst George Denye was not far behind in 19th place and a time of 7:46.  Rebecca Tate was 43rd in 14:12 whilst Simon Holt was 38th in 13:14 in the under 13 boys out of a field of 66.

Dawn Lock

Lytham St Annes had 7 ladies out in the Senior Womens race which was a distance of just under 4 miles.  The race was won by Emily Japp in 22:44, over half a minute clear of 2nd place.  First home for LSARRC was Joanna Goorney in 10th place and 1st vet 45 in a time of 25:07.  Julia Rolfe was 108th in 31:30 closely followed by Alex Everest in 111th place and 31:36.  Pam Hardman was next in 128th place and 33:45 whilst Ruth Wheatley made an excellent cross country debut in 138th and 34:14.  Sylvia Gittins was 161st in 35:48and Dawn Lock was 189th in 47:55.  There were 190 runners.  In the team results, the ladies finished 21st in the open category, 15th in the over 35s, 9th in the over 45s and 4th in the over 55s.

Steve Ashton

The senior men's race was over a course of about 6 miles and attracted 304 runners.  The race was won by Phil Waite of Barrow and Furness Striders AC in a time of 31:37, just 3 seconds ahead of Luke Minns of Blackpool, Wyre and Fylde.  Tom Howarth was 1st home for the club in 75th place and 37:59.  Neil Tate was next in 94th place and a time of 38:52, Terry Hellings was 166th in 42:17, Nigel Simpkin was 272nd in 49:41 and Steve Ashton, in only his 2nd cross country event, was 293rd in 52:56.  With LSARRC were a little down on numbers with only 5 men (needing 6 for an open team), they only managed a full team in the over 50 category where they were 20th.

On Saturday morning, Mel Koth ran the Cuerden Valley parkrun.  She finished in 22nd place in 23:19, a new PB for the course.

Neil Tate - PB at Fairclough 5

Sunday morning saw the annual Fairclough 5 mile from Stanah Country Park, Thornton. Excellently organised by Thornton Cleveleys Running Club, the local, friendly race is dedicated to the life of Bob Fairclough, a founder member of the club.  Taking in a 2 lap course, the race was won by Liam Craine of Blackpool, Wyre and Fylde in 27:11 and had 109 finishers.  Neil Tate was first home for Lytham St Annes in a PB of 30:08 for 11th place.  Richard Storey was 32nd in 35:05, Pam Hardman was 75th in 43:37, Sylvia Gittins was 83rd in 33:25 and Dawn Lock was 108th in 1:02:28.

Fiona Geldard

Fiona Geldard travelled overseas to Belek on the Antalya coast in Turkey for her first ever half Ironman Triathlon and did herself proud.  She completed the 1.9km swim in 52:50, the 90.2km bike ride in 4:00:12 and the 21.1km run in 2:21:12 giving a brilliant overall time of 7:29:30.  Fiona is hoping to complete the full Ironman in Florida in November 2016 in memory of her mum who she lost earlier this year and from this performance, is on track.

Thursday night was the club's annual “Run the Lights” with a large contingent from the club heading down to South Shore for an evening run through the Blackpool Illuminations.  The hungry runners then headed to the Starr Gate chippy for Fish and Chips.

Illuminations run

Fish and Chips

LSARRC News 20th October 2015

On Saturday morning it was the last race in the Pilling 10k series.  Run on quite country lanes and in good weather, the race was won by Chris Steele of Border Harriers in 32:31.  3 member of the Lytham St Annes took part.  Pam Hardman was first finisher for the club in 56th place and 50:51, Julia Rolfe was 64th in 52:05 and Sylvia Gittins was 68th in 54:09.

Joanna Goorney and Dave Dunn headed over to Avenham Park, Preston for the weekly Preston parkrun on Saturday morning.  Joanna finished in 16th place in a time of 19:40 whilst Dave, in his first ever parkrun was 51st in 22:14

Start of Green Drive 5

Claire England, Pam Hardman and Pam Binns
man the water station

Sunday saw the 16th Green Drive Five and the 3rd Green Drive Junior 1 mile take place in Lytham attracting of runners of all levels including many from local running clubs and further afield.  Weather conditions were perfect, cool and slightly overcast with no wind.  With race headquarters at Lytham C of E Primary School, the start for both races was just across the road at the end of Green Drive, resplendent in its Autumn colours.  The 5 mile course then headed over Saltcotes Bridge and on towards Warton coming back along country lanes.

Dave Rigby - lead  bike

Both races was excellently organised by race director Mark Selby who only took up the reins at the start of the year and was hosted by Lytham St Annes Road Runners Club whose members, friends and relatives provided race support and marshals.  The club still also managed to field 12 runners as well in the senior race.

There were just over 300 finishers in the main race all rewarded with a souvenir T-shirt.  The winner was Karl Billington from Blackburn Harriers in a time of 25:18 very closely followed by David Rigby of Preston Harriers just 2 seconds later, both runners over a minute clear of 3rd place Rob Affleck of Preston Harriers in 26:21.  First lady was Emily Japp of Blackpool, Wyre and Fylde AC in a time of 29:12 and 19th place overall.  The race also incorporated the Lancashire 5 mile Championships with Karl and Emily both crowned Lancashire Champions.  In the team results, Preston Harriers took the men's title with 4 out of 6 top place runners while Blackpool Wyre and Fylde won the ladies prize.

Junior 1 mile 1st and 2nd - Michael Hayes followed by Zane Seddon

First home for LSARRC was Joe Greenwood in 24th place and 29:26 whilst Joanna Goorney was first female home for the club in 31:14 and 6th female.  There were a number of excellent PBs including Felicity Wolohan who knocked over 2 minutes off with 34:31 and Sue Hawitt with 40:04.

3 members of the Tate family

The Tate family (with 3 members in the club) were out in force from 60 year old grandad Steve, sons Neil and Alex and four grandkids Luke, Rebecca, Sophie and Archie, completing three generations of Tates.

LSARRC results: 24th Joe Greenwood 29:26; 36 Neil Tate 30:45; 47 Joanna Goorney 31:14; 58 Thomas Howarth 31:47; 70 Mark Willett 32:44; 93 Felicity Wolohan 34:31; 94 Alan Elstone 34:37; 123 Colin Laidlaw 36:50; 151 Derek Heron 37:50; 156 Roy Stevens 38:07; 173 Gemma Czarnota 39:32; 183 Susan Hawitt 40:04; 200 Steve Ashton 41:37; 215 Rachael Wignall 42:51; 219 Ruth Wheatley 43:18; 222 Jeremy McCandless 43:36;

The Junior race was an accurately measured traffic free 1 mile out and back course along Green Drive itself.  It was won by 15 year old Lytham St Annes Road Runners Club member Michael Hayes in his first ever road race in an excellent time of 5:12.  He was closely followed by fellow club member 11 year old Zane Seddon in 5:16.  Both lads smashed the previous course record by over 20 seconds.  First female was 13 year old Danielle Whipp from Blackpool Wyre and Fylde in a time of 5:43 and 3rd overall.  There were a record number of 76 finishers.

The junior start

LSARRC juniors results: 1 Michael Hayes 05:12; 2 Zane Seddon 5:16; 13 Simon Holt 6:11; 15 Harry Fellows 6:12; 17 Louis Eunson 6:16; 19 Chloe Norman 6:19; 20 George Denye 6:20; 21 Morgan Pritchard 6:21; 24 Charlie Ormerod 6:27; 28 Max Talbot 6:34; 33 Francis Morrison 6:53; 41 Rebecca Tate 7:13; 47 Charlotte Thomson 7:33; 50 Sydney Ramsden 7:44; 59 Aaron Rushton 8:17; 63 Jessica Ramsden 8:35; 71 Sophie Tate 9:30; 72 James Emsley 9:43; 74 Ethan Currie 10:18;

Felicity Wolohan

Rachael Wignall

Sue Hawitt

Ethan Currie

Harry Fellows

Simon Tate

The Tates manning the T-shirt station

LSARRC News 13th October 2015

George Denye winning the Vernons Fun Run

After last week's lull in races, there was a bit more action this last weekend.

Mel Koth was the only LSARRC runner at ran the Valiant's Half Marathon from Valiant’s Equestrian Centre, Out Rawcliffe, on Saturday morning.  She had a great race, finishing 19th over all and 3rd lady in 1:34 out of field of 98 runners.  Conditions were perfect for the well organised race on very quiet and fairly flat country lanes.  Finishers goodies of a medal, huge bar of chocolate, a brew and a bacon barm were well received.

Sydney Ramsden

On Sunday morning, 5 members of the club ran the Autumn Breaker 10k from Stanley Park.  The race takes on a two lap course of the park starting and finishing on the running track.  It was a very successful morning for the contingent with 3 of them smashing their PBs for 10k.  First home for the club was Graham Webster in 33rd place and 1st vet 60 in 42:15.  Next was Alan Elstone in 50th place and a PB of 43:46.  Colin Laidlaw was 87th with 47:34.  There was a PB for Claire England in 94th place despite pulling a hamstring as she entered the stadium for a lap of the track to finish and finally, Sue Hawitt also ran a PB for 146th place in 51:54.

2 Lytham St Annes juniors, George Denye age 9 and Sydney Ramsden age 10 were in action in the Vernon's fun run in Preston which was run over a tough undulating 2k course.  George was first boy home, his first ever victory, a tremendous result in 8:03 and Sydney was 10th  in 9:37.  There were 57 runners.

Russ Chew with his 10000m bronze medal

Mark Willett and Russ Chew  travelled over to Leigh Sports Village for the Northern Masters 10000m championships.  With 16 runners on the track, the race was won by Alan Robertson of Wirral AC in a time of 35:11.  Mark was pleased to finish just sub 40 minutes in 39:56 in 7th place receiving 1st 40.  Russ was 11th and 3rd vet 50 in 45:55.

Mark Willett with his gold medal

Joanna Goorney headed just over the border into Yorkshire for the Withins Skyline Fell Race starting from Penistone Hill Country Park, near Haworth.  The race was won by Tom Adams of Ilkley Harriers in 38:49 whilst international Lindsey Brindle of Horwich RMI was 1st lady in 47:05 and had 313 finishers.  Despite getting caught up in a fast, frenzied start and ending up towards the back of the pack and later getting a leg caught in a bog and having to be pulled out by 2 fellow runners, Joanna still managed to finish 12th lady and 2nd vet 40 in 54:00.

Joanna Goorney at the Withins Skyline Fell Race

LSARRC News 6th October 2015

It is now less than 2 weeks to go  until the Green Drive Five and Green Drive Junior Mile on the 18th October, 2 great races organised by Lytham St Annes Road Runners.  The Green Drive Five is a fast and accurately measured five miles suitable for both elite and slower runners. It also incorporates the Lancashire AA  5 Mile Championships. Starting and finishing in the attractive surroundings of Green Drive in Lytham, the flat course is perfect for achieving PBs.  The Green Drive Junior Mile is an accurately measured mile held in advance of the senior race for athletes aged 8 to 15. Starting at the same location as the Green Drive Five, the course takes a safe off-road out and back route to the far end of Green Drive. All finishers receive a medal.  Further details can be found on the LSARRC website www.lythamrunners.org.uk and online entry is available at https://bookitzone.com/mark_selby/cI2FFX.

Apart from the local parkruns, there were very few races this last weekend in the North West.

On Saturday morning, Richard Storey did the Preston parkrun where he recorded a time of 22:39 for 60th place for the 5k course.  The popular park run attracted 278 runners.

The main attraction of the weekend was the Chester Marathon which has become more and more popular as an autumn marathon over the last couple of years.  Seven members from the club ran the race.  The weather was perfect and it was well organised marathon.  The course went along lovely country closed roads, wasn't too crowded, undulating in places and was very enjoyable.
First home for Lytham St Annes was Tom Haworth who despite finding the conditions warm still finished in a new PB by 40 seconds of 2:57:04 in 54th position.  Andy Draper was next in 124th place and a time of 03:06:28.  Roy Stevens was 1301st in 4:12:30.  Pam Binns had an excellent run to finish 1917th and first vet 70 in 4:51:10.  Not far behind were Sylvia Gittins and Pam Hardman who both finished together in 4:57:08 and 1982nd and 1983rd place.  For Sylvia, it was laying the ghosts to rest  after having to pull out of the Manchester Marathon last April just a few days before with a virus – very disappointing after months of training.  Johnny Wild just crept in order 5 hours in 04:59:17 for 2017th place.

Joanna Goorney took a break from running this last weekend and instead competed in the British Lead and Speed Climbing Championships at Awesome Walls Climbing Centre in Sheffield.  The event held over 2 days included juniors, seniors and veterans competing and also incorporated the final round of the IFSC Paraclimbing Cup series 2015.  Joanna retained her title as Female Veteran British Lead Climbing Champion.

LSARRC News 29th September 2015

Thursday night saw the final race of the club's summer handicap series.  It turned out to be a very hard fought finish amongst those filling the middle places but Debbie Cooper, in 1st place with a season's best, and Sue Hawitt with a fourth successive PB, finished clearly ahead of the rest. Newer member Rachel Scott in 3rd also ran well to record a PB by just one second.  Unsurprisingly Sue comfortably retains her place at the top of the points table while Dawn remains second and Neil moves up to third.  It was good to welcome a new face, Steve Ashton, who enjoyed himself enough to join the club immediately after the race.  The traditional Jacob's Join and chips was enjoyed afterwards back at the YMCA.  Next month, the handicap returns to the South Park course for the winter season.

Full results: 1 Debbie Cooper 36.03 SB; 2 Sue Hawitt 35.39 PB; 3 Rachel Scott 40.29 PB; 4 Hannah McCandless 36.18; 5 Alan Elstone 31.05; 6 Neil Tate 26.38; 7 Richard Storey 31.15; 8 Sylvia Gittins 38.51; 9 Alex Wiggins 37.11; 10 Alex Everest 35.30; 11 Dawn Lock 56.35; 12 Tom Haworth 26.27; 13 Jeremy McCandless 38.56; n/c Andy Unsworth 27.05; n/c Graham Webster 29.01; Est. Steve Ashton 38.10;

On a busy weekend for Lytham St Anne RRC members age 8 to 70 were competing from Blackpool to Berlin on track, road and cross country over distances from 80 metres to 26.2 miles.

Mel Koth

Saturday 26th was the first Mid Lancs. cross country fixture of the season held on a challenging course in Astley Park, Chorley.  First race if the day was the under 11 girls where Sydney Ramsden competing in her first cross country race finished the 1600m course in 7m 34s for 32nd place with Charlotte Thompson taking 54th place in 8m 42s.  It was under 11 boy Louis Eunson who had Lytham’s highest finisher of the day finishing 4th in the under 11 boys in 6m 27s with George Denye just 11 seconds behind in 11th place.  Hollie Winstanley in her best ever finish in the Mid Lancs. League took 10th place in the under 13 girl’s race.   Spenser Unsworth also making his debut for Lytham finished in 47th place in 17m 17s in the under13 boy’s race.  Lytham had 6 athletes in the senior women’s race and first home was Mel Koth in (12th, 28m 05s) followed by Barbara Holmes (34th and 1st  FV55 in 29m 37s), Louisa Ruman (59th 32m 22s), Dawn Bloor (72nd, 34m 30s), Als Everest (73rd, 34m 31s) (140th , 51m 15s).  The senior women’s team finishing 3rd  in division 1.

Charlotte Thompson

Louis Eunson

The final race of the day was the 10k senior men’s race.  Joe Greenwood was first home for Lytham in 48th place in 40m 09s followed by Neil Tate (42m 34s 75th ), Tom Howarth (43m 16s, 88th ), (43m 30s, 91st), Graham Webster (46m 12s, 132nd), Terry Hellings (47m 52s, 152nd), Colin Laidlaw (50m 14s 181st) and Steve Ashton making his debut for the club just a few days after joining (59m 13s, 230th).  The men’s team got off to a good start to the season with the senior men finishing 2nd in division 3, the vet 40s first in division 3 of the vets and Graham Webster, Terry Hellings and Colin Laidlaw finishing as first v60 team.

Steve Ashton

Louisa Ruman

On Saturday night, Mark Willett was up in Lancaster for the last race in the Lancaster 5k series from Salt Ayre Leisure Centre.  Under the late evening sunshine, Mark was delighted to claim a new PB of 18:57, his first time under 19 minutes (having done a PB-equalling 19.02 there the previous month).  Mark was back in action the following morning at the Run Preston 5k.  After his efforts the night before, he opted to pace his soon to be 11 year old neice around the gloriously sunny course finishing in 28:04.

Chloe Norman

4 Lytham juniors competed at the Blackpool open track and field meeting at Stanley Park on Sunday.  Under 9 girl Lucie McNally in only her second long jump competition jumped a pb of 2.97m a huge improvement on her previous best for second place and a silver medal.  Under 13 girl Georgia Norman in her first high jump competition cleared a pb of 1.20m in the high jump finishing equal 3rd  on height but 6th  on count back.   Georgia ran well in a competitive 800m race to finish 4th  with another pb of 2m 55.5s.  Georgia also ran the 80m finishing 4th in her heat in 15.7s.  Chloe Norman picked up two gold medals with a pb of 1.43m in the under 15 girls high jump and a comfortable victory in the 800m in 2m 34.8s.  Chloe also finished in 4th in the long jump with a jump of 4.29m.  Under 9 boy Connor Norman took gold in the long jump with a jump of 3.18m and gold again in the 80m with a time of 12.7s.

Felicity and her brother, Malachy

700 miles east,  three Lytham Athletes were toeing the line the Berlin Marathon, reputedly a fast marathon course.  And so it proved to be for the LSARRC runners with all three recording pb times. Quickest was Steve Hargreaves finishing in 2:39:21 for 45th  M40.  Emily Hargreaves finished 29th FV35 in 3:08:20 with Felicity Wolohan surprising herself to take over 10 minutes off her previous best to finish 809th female in 3:35:41.  Felicity was also joined by her brother Malachy who did 3.23.12 in his first ever marathon.