LSARRC News 6th September 2016

Roy Stevens and Sue Hawitt

Two Lytham athletes, Roy Stephens and Sue Hawitt ventured to Lancaster on Sunday 4th to compete in the Golden Ball 20 mile race.  Roy finished in 33rd place with a time of 2:48:30 and Sue in 3:17:07 for 56th place.  Both are preparing for Autumn marathons Roy Stevens an old hand at marathons will tackle Dublin while first time marathon runner Sue Hawitt will toe the line at Chester marathon.

Richard Storey opted for UKFast Salford City 10k and was the sole LSARRC representative.  The race uses a flat course around Salford Quays starting and finishing just outside the BBC building at Media City and passing the Old Trafford football stadium along route. It's also popular, with this year's event attracting just under 3000 runners. Conditions were good for fast times with the first 97 finishers all going sub 40 minutes. The race was won by Mohammad Aburezeq of Altrincham & District AC in 30:03. Richard had a good run, recording his fastest 10k time for a number of years to finish in 265th position with a time of 43:46.

Sarah Bagshaw with a parkrun PB

Saturday was the 38th Lytham Hall parkrun and Lytham were well represented with 14 members taking part and many more marshalling.  Two Lytham athletes achieved personal best times.  Sarah Bagshaw (a graduate from the Lytham beginners group) finished in 31:35 (135th) knocking nearly 40 seconds off her previous best with Karen Lanigan finishing in 29:50 (107th) also improving on her previous best by 40 seconds.  First home for Lytham was Ross Mcelvie in 7th place with a time of 18:33. Lytham also took 8th and 9th positions with Neil Tate (18:46) and Chris McCarthy (18:56).  Other Lytham finishers were Alan Elstone ((21:22, 22nd), Terry Hellings (21:26, 23rd), Gerry Browne (22:10, 31st), 10 year old Morgan Pritchard running and his regular pacemaker were both timed at 23:36 for 43rd and 44th places, Graham Young 28:00(88th),  Gillian Oliver 29:08 (101st), Sarah Bradshaw (31:26 (131st) and Lorna Cragg 29:0 (195th).  

Mel Koth

Meanwhile Mel Koth took part in the Lakeland Trails Keswick 15k.  Bad weather meant the course had to be changed for safety reasons and the 15k race ended up as 16.5k with an extra 100m of climbing.  Mel, an experienced athlete with many tough races under her belt (including several marathons) said this was one of the toughest races she had ever done.  Underfoot conditions were very wet with deep mud Mel was pleased to finish unscathed in 108th place in a time off 1:38:57 (unlike several athletes forced to retire with broken bones).

The following day 10 year old George Denye and 8 year old Eric Wrigley were fyling the Lytham flag at the Preston junior 2k parkrun.  George finished in 2nd place in a time of 7:59 only being beaten by Preston athlete Joseph Gaughan 4 years his senior.  Eric ran very well to finish in 6th place with a personal best time of 9:29.