LSARRC News 24th October 2017

LSARRC runners at the start of the Green Drive 5

The eighteenth running of the Green Drive 5 took place on Sunday and yet again proved to be highly successful. The five-mile race is Lytham St Anne’s Road Runners’ showcase, and also hosts the Lancashire five-mile championships.

For the first time ever the event was sold out before the actual day. New race organiser Bob Clough moved the start time to 10am and introduced chip timing, both very successful innovations.

Start of the Green Drive Junior Mile

It was touch and go whether the event would do ahead at all with the threat posed by storm Brian. A late decision was made on Saturday evening to proceed, correctly as Sunday turned out to be just another breezy autumn day.

Graham Webster - 1st vet 65

The main race was preceded by the Green Drive Junior Mile with 89 juniors aged from just 4 to 15 taking part. Sheltered from the wind by trees, Danielle Whipp set the only record of the day with a female course record of 5:41. This beat the previous record set by herself two years ago, and this is her third win in a row at this event. The overall winner for the second time was Jack Tickle with a gun time of 5:20.

Competitors in the main race suffered a buffeting from the wind and wet feet from a small area of flooding. Rob Danson of Wesham Road Runners was the clear winner with a time of 25:54, one-and-a-half minutes in front of the next finisher. The first lady was Laura Hesketh of Clayton-le-Moors Harriers in 29:24, and fourth overall.

The race was also a team event and there were 28 teams of three men fielded by eleven clubs. Lytham’s and Wesham RR’s first teams tied for the top spot on 22 points but the trophy was awarded to Lytham on “countback”. This was where is depended on the position of the third counter. Preston Harriers were third.

Catherine Carrdus - first vet 45

Blackpool, Wyre & Fylde AC beat Lytham by just five points to take the ladies’ trophy with Wesham coming third from eleven teams.

In the individual standings Lytham also performed well. John Bertenshaw and Graham Webster were first in the MV60 & MV65 categories respectively, while Catherine Carrdus was the first FV45. All three were rewarded with Green Drive 5 trophies and Lancashire Championship medals to add to their collections.

The previous weekend Ruth Wheatley ran the Lisbon Rock n’ Roll Half Marathon in considerably different weather. Heat of 32° in the shade made conditions exceptionally tough, which were not helped by a 1.5km climb at the end. Despite this Ruth still didn’t quite manage a personal worst, struggling in at 2:22:26.

Rebecca Tate manning the water station

Tail runners