LSARRC News 8th August 2017

Mel Koth

The third and final race of the Cuerden Valley Badger 10k Series took place on Thursday with three competitors from Lytham St Annes Road Runners.

As the title would suggest, the route of the race is through the beautiful Cuerden Valley Park, near Bamber Bridge. It’s hilly, and competitors run on various terrains, and along and across the River Lostock. The event is part of a programme to help finance the upkeep of the park.

Julie Rolfe and Pam Hardman were the third and fifth FV55s respectively. Julia, running in a new age category, found the going tough especially with carrying an ankle injury. She still managed a respectable time of 55:45 while Pam set a course pb with her time of 58:27. Chris Bowker was Lytham’s sole male althlete in the race, 83rd in 54:01.

On Wednesday Mel Koth was in action in North Lancashire at the Capernwray sprint Triathlon. This consisted of a 500m open water swim before an 18k cycle ride followed by a 5k run. Held at the Capernwray Dive Centre, the swim was very choppy and busy but Mel managed it well. The cycle route very undulating but enjoyed fantastic views while the run was mostly flat, alongside a canal path, but with a uphill finish for the last kilometer. Mel’s results were; swim,12:57; cycle, 39:17; and run 24:33. Another top performance from Mel earned her the first FV40 position, 2nd lady and 69th overall.

Lytham had a quartet of first lady finishers at various parkruns on Saturday: Emily Hargreaves (Greenwich, 20:28), Michelle Hook (Preston, 20:31), Catherine Carrdus (Hyde, 19:14) and Felicity Wolohan (19:49, Princes parkrun, Liverpool).  James Buckley ran Ashton Court parkrun in 24:48 and Ian Tate at Warrington in 20:42, while Stephen Hargreaves ran at Greenwich in 18:06 to take third place overall. Sue Samme ran at Blackppol in 22:33 and Lucy Montgomery was third lady at French parkrun de Dougnes, Cubnezais in 30:04.  Closer to home at Lytham Hall parkrun, Andrew Draper finished first in 17:24 with Neil and Alex Tate hot on his heels in 3rd and 4th place (17:52, pb for Neil and 18:35 for Alex).  The other club runners were Neil Bayntun-Roberts (20:32), Mark Hughes (20:52, pb), Gill Draper (21:03, 3rd lady, pb), Morgan Pritchard (21:30), Darren Ames (21:37, pb), Jennifer Hill (21:55, 4th lady), Emily Balshaw (21:59, pb), Terry Hellings (22:01), Chris Bowker (23:22), Claire England (25:45), Pamela Hardman (26:05, pb), Gillian Oliver (29:05), Jeremy McCandless (30:55), Sarah Bradshaw (33:05) and Sarah Bagshaw (33:37).

At Park View junior parkrun on Sunday, Morgan Pritchard was the first back in 7:37, with Sophie Tate, Jayden Ricahrdson, Clemmie Tierney and Finlay Hughes all running well.