LSARRC News 28th February 2017

Hebe Tierney, Sophie Bohannon and Lois Crozier, Year 6

On Sunday morning Lytham St Annes Road Runners hosted the Fylde Primary Schools Cross-Country races on the Park View playing fields in Lytham.  Many Lytham club runners took part, but on this occasion running for their schools.

Morgan Pritchard, George Denye and Alex Maude, Year 6

The event was split into three races, one each for school years four, five and six.  The course was around the very damp and sometimes muddy edges of the playing fields, with several children losing their footing near the end. 

Year 5 race

The year four race was won by James Wood, Rossall School’s only entrant, completing the 1.2 kilometer course in 5:22, beating Eric Wrigley of Medlar school by just four seconds.  Archie Tate (Our Lady’s) was third. For the girls Carleton St Hilda’s had the first two finishers with Jessica Ramsden and Lucy Mongomery. Third was Clemmie Tierney of Lytham C of E.

Year 6 race

Felix Twitchett (Lytham Hall) was the winner of the year five race over the same course in 5:07, a second in front of Charlie Ormerod (Our Lady’s). Forest Leah (Great Eccleston) came third. Holly Tickle (St Michael’s), Daisy Cave (Heyhouses), and Georgia Nicholls (Treales) were the first three girls.

Year 4 race leaders

The year sixes had a longer course to race, 1.4 kilometers. George Denye (Kirkham and Wesham school) comfortably won with a time of 5:21 on what was by now a slippy course. Alex Maude (Kirkham Grammer) was second, and Morgan Pritchard (St Peter’s) the third boy in fifth place overall. Sophie Bohannon (Lytham C of E) ran well to finish third, and the first girl with Lois Crozier (St Michael’s) a place behind in both. Hebe Tierney (Lytham C of E) was the third girl.

Year 4 race

After storm Doris throwing her weight around mid-week, the weekend remained unsettled with Sunday's Stanley Park 10k being no exception to this with winds scheduled to circle around the 20mph mark. 364 runners took part in the 2nd Stanley Park race of the weekend, three of whom were Lytham runners.

Surprisingly the winds weren't as bad as expected, although their reared their ugly head on the in down towards the track at the end of the first half / end of the race which made a sprint finish even extra effort! In spite of this, Michelle Hook was first home for be club in a PB time of 42:54 which was good enough for 4th overall lady and 1st senior lady. 2nd home in a seasons best time was Colin Laidlaw in 45:55, followed by Kathy Gaunt for first v50 also in a PB time of 47:40.

In the same race on the previous day Kirsten Burnett finished 95th in 49:43, while Julia Rolfe was 129th. Not to be confused with each other, Sarah Bradshaw was 236th and Sarah Bagshaw 264th.

The highlight of the club's February handicap was undoubtedly Tom Howarth's winning run in 20:15; an excellent time only five seconds outside his PB set back in 2013.

Also running well were Alex Tate in second place with a PB and Colin Laidlaw. Laidlaw's third place in the penultimate race for the Handicap Plate means he and leader Greg Oulton are separated by only a single point going into the March finale.

Finally, evergreen Pam Binns was the first female over 70 in the Brighton Half Marathon on Sunday. Pam had to contend with south westerly winds and drizzle, but still finished in a time of 2:16:38, over 15 minutes quicker than the next in the category.
Awards were given to the first boy and the first girl in each race, and every competitor was awarded a commemorative medal at the finish.