LSARRC News 29th March 2016

Calder Vale 10 miler

There were plenty of races on offer over the Easter weekend for Lytham St Annes runners to get their teeth into, the closest and most popular being the Calder Vale 10 mile on Good Friday which attracted 196 runners.  The race was won by Gary Pennington of Preston Harriers over 4 minutes clear of the rest of the field.  Ian Tate was first home for the club in 76th place with a time of 1:18:59.  Claire England had an excellent run to win 1st vet 50 in 105th place and a time of 1:26:51 whilst not far behind Sue Hawitt finished in 122nd place and 1:29:37

Also on Friday morning was the fast, flat Salford 10k, a 2 lap course from Salford Sports Village.  With 573 finishers, first home was Willian Mycroft of Enfield and Haringey AC.  Andy Draper was the club's sole representative finishing in 58th place in a time of 35:44.

The World Half Marathon Championships were held in Cardiff on Saturday.  With far from perfect weather conditions deteriorating badly towards the end, Steve Hargreaves still managed to finish in 106th place in a time of 1:15:40

On Saturday afternoon, Joanna Goorney headed over to Horwich for the Rivington Pike Fell Race.  Organised by Horwich RMI Harriers, the race is a straight up and down 3.2mile race with 699 feet of ascent.  The great Ron Hill was making his 40th appearance at the race and was later presented with a tankard to commemorate the occasion.  Incidentally, Lytham St Annes' Sue Samme used to hold the Ladies course record having won the race back in 1980 by over a minute and a quarter.  Joanna finished in 86th place and was 7th lady and 1st vet 45.

On Easter Monday, Greg Oulton ran the Ackworth Half Marathon, near Wakefield.  The undulating scenic one lap course was not made any easier by the rain and gale force wind and the final hill, arrived at mile 12 for half a mile, along with a strong head wind was not a good combination.  On the plus side, it was also the first half marathon that Greg has finished where he didn't need to walk for a rest before the end.  Greg managed to get round in 2:03:09 in 218th place.

Johnny Wild

The previous Saturday (19th),  Johnny Wild ran the Cartmel Trail 18k Challenge which is part of the Lakeland Trails series.  He finished in 2:13:54 coming in 293rd place out of 490 finishers

Chris McCarthy

The 17th Lytham Hall parkrun on Saturday morning successfully moved back onto the 3 lap “A” course which has had new paths laid on it vastly improving the track.  With 191 runners,  the second highest since the parkrun began, the rain luckily held off till after the event.  Lytham St Annes had the first male and first female finishers also this week with Chris McCarthy getting round the course in 17:49 whilst Joanna Goorney in 12th place overall finished in 20:06.  Alan Elstone was 18th in 21:09.  Felicity Wolohan was 3rd lady in 21st place in 21:36 with Sue Samme just behind in 23rd and 21:46.  Neil Bayntun-Roberts was 32nd in 22:52, Morgan Pritchard was 43rd in 23:45 Graham Webster was 44th in 23:46, Dawn Bloor  was 47th in 23:50, Jeremy McCandless was 107th in 29:24, Karen Lanigan in her first ever parkrun was 127th in 30:43, Clemmie Tierney was 164th in 34:56 and Hebe Tierney was 165th in 34:57.

Morgan Pritchard followed by Graham Webster