LSARRC News 20th March 2018

A new club record for Felicity Wolohan

A new club record for Felicity Wolohan at the Trimpell race on Sunday 18th March, Wolohan broke her own club record of 2:21:41 for 20 miles by 1:17, taking it down to 2:20:24.

LSARRC at Trimpell 20

With snow falling on Saturday night and Sunday morning, several races in the North West were forced to cancel this weekend, including the Wilmslow Half Marathon and Wigan 10k. Fortunately, the Trimpell 20 Mile race in Lancaster fared better and saw a good turnout from Lytham St Anne’s Road Runners despite the bitterly cold, windy conditions.

The race is traditionally used by runners training for Spring Marathons, and as a largely flat course along the River Lune attracts runners from across the North of England. This year, the course featured a new section, diverting from the river at 15 miles to add an unwelcome hill and exposure to the strong winds!

Despite this challenge, the club prevailed taking both the Men’s (Andy Draper, Neil Tate, Joe Greenwood) and Women’s (Felicity Wolohan, Gill Draper, Mel Koth) team prizes, along with 1st Women’s V40 prize for Mel Koth.

Full Results:
Andy Draper (2:05:29), Neil Tate (2:13:54), Joe Greenwood (2:16:45), Felicity Wolohan (2:20:24), Gill Draper (2:34:01), Mel Koth (2:42:35), Kirsten Burnett (3:20:19), Rachael Wignall (4:00:15)

On Saturday 10th March, Lytham member Debbie Cooper did the Haworth Hobble, a 32 mile off road route. Cooper reported the day started wet and it rained, heavily at times for the first 10 miles, "we spent a lot of the time in the cloud on the hills, so no views!!"  Cooper said she didn't take her coat off for the first 22 miles, when it finally started to warm up. The rocky paths could easily have been mistaken for streams with so much water running down them. The rest was deep mud and some of the descents were only passable by sliding. Cooper slipped down a flight of 4 steps covered in mud at one point and thankfully ended up standing at the bottom on her feet, not sure how she got from the top. To finish off the day the last few miles were at times through snow that had drifted against walls. At one-point Cooper was up to her knees in snow and struggling to get her feet out. Cooper was just glad to finish and thought that she was heading for a personal worst time on this route. In the end, Cooper was a couple of minutes faster than last year, but still a way off her personal best time. However, not bad in those conditions, she finished in 6:34.04.

The Rome half marathon took place on Sunday 11th March on a cloudy morning with 10,000 runners heading to the outskirts of Rome city centre to run a straight-out race to the Ostia coastline. A 9:20 gun time meant a very early start. The route was undulating with two long, steady and very tedious inclines at the 3 and 6-mile points which were no mean feat and resulting in a very challenging second half of the race. A mixed bag of weather was also thrown into the mix whereby, 3 heavy down pours and strong headwinds were experienced en route. As runners approached the coast however, the sun shone brightly which made the finish line even more appealing. Jennifer Hill said the run was well supported en route by local Italians cheering and keeping the runners going! She crossed the line in 1:34:27, a personal best by 10 minutes, 67th female and 2nd GB female! It was Matthews very first half marathon and he finished in a very respectable 2:12:54. All in all a fabulous race in an equally fabulous city. The pizza, pasta and red wine was very much deserved and enjoyed!

Saturday saw the first Track and Field event of the year.  Four Lytham juniors braved the snow and wind to make their track and field debut for Lytham to compete in the misnamed Winter Warmup Track and Field meeting at Stanley Park on Saturday 17th.

Amara Thorpe

First to compete for LSARRC was Brogane Murphy.  Murphy has only been with the club a few months but has been very busy competing at cross country, road and now track and field. Her first event was the under 15 girls long jump and she had a very credible best jump of 3.16m in her first ever long jump competition for 14th place.  Murphy went on to compete in the 1500m where she finished as 3rd under 15 girl in a time of 5m 43s.  Clemmie Tierney also competed in her first ever long jump competition as finished as 14th under 11 girl with a best jump of 2.75m.  Under 13 girl Amara Thorpe also making her track and field debut for LSARRC finished 15th in the long jump with a best jump of 3.16m and third in her heat of the 100m in a time of 16.7s.  Rebecca Fisher competed in the under 13 girls 70m hurdles and finished 2nd in her heat in a time of 14.9s.

Clemmie Tierney

Graham Webster was the sole Lytham senior athlete representing Lytham and competed in the final event of the day, the 3000m finishing in a time of 12m 13.7s.

Also on Saturday 17th March, three intrepid Lytham runners braved the weather to travel to Cartmel, to race over the fells in bitterly cold temperatures, bitingly cold winds and snow flurries.

John Wild ran the 10k in approximately 1 hour 11 minutes (provisional results), Chris Bowker and Greg Oulton ran the 18k, finishing in approximately 2:02 his 6oth run of the year, and 2:11 for Bowker.

For Bowker this was his first ever run on the trails or fells and admitted to being surprised at how tough the races are, but he thoroughly enjoyed the experience and is looking forward to more, including taking part in the club's Fell Championship series.

At the weekly parkruns, Neil Bayntun Roberts ran just outside a personal best time to secure 4th place at Lytham Hall, and Darran Ames achieved a best time of 20:56 for 10th.

Full Results: Neil Bayton-Roberts 4th 19:52; Catherine Carrdus 6th 20:31; Joanna Goorney 8th 20:43; Neil Tate 9th 20:55; Darran Ames 10th 20:56; John Bertenshaw 18th 22:18; Morgan Pritchard 19th 22:24; Graham Webster 20th 22:25; Andrew Draper 26th 23:09; James Buckley 30th 23:20; Debbie Cooper 33rd 23:47; Jason Sheridan 44th 24:36; Mark Hughes 75th 27:07; Finlay Hughes 76th 27:08; Stephen Tate 77th 27:09;

Jennifer Hill ran the Blackpool parkrun at Stanley Park in Blackpool, she was 22nd overall and 2nd female in a time of 21:35.  Well dome to Frankie Ball who came 2nd in the junior parkrun at Park View on Sunday he achieved a tie of 7:54.