LSARRC News 26th June 2018

Graham Webster, Terry Hellings and Russ Chew

The Northern Masters track and field championships took place at Spenborough Athletics Stadium on the Sunday 24th June and three Lytham athletes (Graham Webster, Terry Hellings and Russ Chew) made the trip.  The Northern Masters is open to any athletes over 35 and attracts some of the best veteran athletes form the North of England.   With Webster competing in five events, Hellings and Chew in three events each and the temperature reaching 30 centigrade all three Lytham athletes were in for a tough day.  All three lined up for the 800m with Webster taking M65 silver in 2m 55s, Hellings M60 silver in 2m 55s and Chew finishing 5th M55 in 2m 59.5s.  Both Webster and Chew toed the line for the 200, Webster takingM65 gold in 33s and Chew M55 bronze in 35.2s.  Next event for the Lytham athletes was the 3000m and this time it was Webster and Hellings flying the Lytham flag with Webster picking up M65 gold in 12m 15s and Hellings M60 silver in 12m 37s.  Hellings and Webster were back on the track just an hour later for the 1500m with Hellings going one better and taking M60 gold in 6m 0.8s and Webster M65 silver in 5m 53.7s.  Final track event of the day was the 400m with Chew picking up M55 gold with a time of 75.8s and Webster M65 silver in 76.2s.  A successful day for Lytham,  three athletes, 11 events and 10 medals.

At the opposite of the running spectrum the clubs ultra distance specialist Debbie Cooper tackled the NoMad 50 mile race.  The NoMad50 mile Ultra follows a multi terrain circular route mainly following Derby Nomad trail around Derbyshire starting and finishing in Breaston.  As well as covering the 50 mile distance competitors have 605m of climbing and need some navigation skills.  Debbie was using the race as part of her training for a 100 mile race later in the year but surprised herself finishing 8th overall and 2nd female in a time of 10h 22m.

Tuesday was the fourth of the Inter club series hosted by Thornton.  Provisional team results proved to be a successful night for Lytham finishing 1st ladies team. 1st veteran ladies, 1st M60 and  2nd in open competition.

With no Lytham parkrun this week due to club day celebrations many of Lytham’s regulars ran the  Blackpool parkrun.  First home for Lytham was Paul Veevers in 18:37 for 6th place.  Graham Webster  was  19th and first M65 in 21:41.  10 year old Jayden Richardson ran exceptionally well for 23rd place in 22:00.  Also running for Lytham were Mark Hughes (28th in 22:24), Gerry Brown (32nd in 22:41), Kev Murray (55th in 23:51), Kathy Gaunt (62nd in 24:21), Kirsten Burnett (117th in 27:26), Julie Wiseman (118th in 27:27), Gillian Oliver (179th in 31:57), Susan Hawitt (193rd in 32:46).  Ross McKelvie doing a pace making job ran Lancaster parkrun finishing 61st in 24:29.  Joanna Goorney was 1st lady at Huddersfield in 20:07, Ian Tate 19th at Pennington Flash in 22:01 and Greg Oulton 146th at Cuerden Valley in 37:23.

LSARRC News 19th June 2018

Two top twenty spots go to Lytham runners at the Freckleton half

The Freckleton Half Marathon took place on Sunday 17th June, and several Lytham runners attended.   The race has the honour of being the oldest half marathon in the UK, Sunday saw the 54th running of the race. A great race that takes place in the heart of the Fylde coast. The first race was held back in 1965 and was won by no other than Ron Hill who still holds the course record!

There is definitely a chance that you could get a pb at the Freckleton Half Marathon. A flat course although the last four miles are a bit of a slog down the main road from Lytham are a bit of a slog. The course passes through several villages including Freckleton with residents offering great support.
13 runners from LSARRC turned up on the start line in what were far more pleasant conditions to run in than the searing heat of 2017.  There were string runs throughout with Joe Greenwood and Thomas Howarth both getting in the top 20 and Michelle Hook making a racing comeback from injury as 4th female on the day.

Michelle Hook

Good conditions this year with the breeze behind you for the last 4 miles. Great support from Lytham Road runners around most of the course. Resulted in Pamela Hardman winning 1st Local resident female over 35 and 2nd FV55 beating her previous half marathon best time by 5minutes.

Full Results: Joe Greenwood 01:22:1 (12th), Thomas Howarth 01:25:0 (19th), Andy Unsworth 01:25:3 (22nd), Paul Veevers 01:27:2 (26th), Michelle Hook 01:33:26 (57th), Neil Baynton-Roberts 01:34:45 (66th), Darran Ames 01:37:27 (75th), James Buckley 01:43:54 (125th), Kevin Murray 01:51:37 (182nd), Jacqueline Murray 02:08:01 (295th), and Ruth Bye 02:17:18 (316th).

On Saturday 16th June, Pam Binns ran the 1/2 marathon which was one of the running events in 'The Tour of Tameside' taking place between Thursday 14th and Sunday 17th of June. Pam FV70 came 1st in her age category in 2:22:26 coming 121st/ 187 female and 450th/536 overall. A very scenic run mainly along the Tameside Trail.  The 13.1-mile Half Marathon starts from within the Athletes Village on Rough Field in Padfield (Glossop) before heading onto the scenic Longdendale Trail which is a disused railway line. The route certainly shows off one of the region’s most popular trails and with entertainment and supporters lining the route, you feel the buzz the entire way to the finish line.  At the far end of the trail near the Woodhead Tunnel, you turn back and return along the same pathway to the finish once more, welcomed home by the cheering spectators.

Also, on Sunday Melanie Koth of Lytham completed the first ever Lakeside Half Triathlon, it’s a Half Ironman distance (swim 1.2 Mile in Derwentwater, Bike 56 Mile and the Run 13.2 Mile around Keswick)
Koth said it was the best weather all weekend. The swim started at 7:15am with a mass start, around half way she got badly kicked in her face, which knocked her a little and took her a while to get around and continue with the race. The Bike course was tough, but it was to be expected around Keswick. Mel found more and more of her rhythm back. She loved the run, the support around the 5lap course was just amazing.  Koth completed the Lakesman Half in 6hrs 12min and 55 seconds and came overall 169th out of 339, 37th lady out of 117 and 9th ladies Vet out of 34. "I got some amazing support of my second claim club TriPteston.  Weather was freezing cold and heavy rain with lots of cold wind. It wasn’t the perfect conditions, but I did it."

Greg Oulton did Settle Hills fell race on Sunday, the only Lytham contingent at the second Inter Club fell race. Just over seven miles mostly off road, the first 2.5 miles of which were up hill, apart from a short drop at mile one. Oulton’s slowest mile included the near vertical downhill at mile 5 which he took very slowly, stepping down sideways. Oulton also got caught up in a cattle jam, where a couple of farmers were herding some young cows (old calves?) down a narrow path. It cost him five minutes, but he welcomed the rest. Soon after he was held up by a large tractor coming towards him taking up the entire width of the road, costing him another minute. But he finished, and ran in an area of the country he has never visited before in great conditions on a great course.

Parkrun
At the Lytham Hall parkrun on Saturday 16th June 29 LSARRC members attended.  Andrew Draper was first home in 18:33 and was 1st overall.  Neil Tate wasn’t far behind in 18:54 for 3rd.  Catherine Carrdus, Jennifer Hill and Maddy Markham were the first 3 female runners to complete the course.  Susan Hawitt and Michelle Sherridan gained new personal best times.

Full Results:  Andrew Draper 18:33 (1st), Neil Tate 18:54 (3rd), Catherine Carrdus 19:39 (5th overall, 1st female), Graham Webster 20:58 (8th), Mark Selby 21:02 (9th), John Bertenshaw 21:06 (10th), Mark Hughes 21:27 (10th), Terry Hellings 21:3 (13th), Jennifer Hill 22:00 (17th, 2nd female), G Browne 22:14 (21st), Maddy Markham 22:15 (22nd), Darran Ames 23:03 (27th), Kev Murray 23:24 (33rd), Gill Draper 23:33 (37th, 5th female), Susan Hawitt 24:00 (44th), Stephen Tate 25:38 (66th), Jason Sheridan 27:15 (84th), Jacqui Murray 27:35 (89th), Leoma Gill 28:03 (95th), Greg Oulton 28:18 (103rd), Bob Clough 29:29 (118th), Gillian Oliver 29:50 (125th), Graham Young 29:59 (127th), Michelle Sheridan 30:53 (133rd), Rosa Gill 32:27 (139th), Sarah Bagshaw 32:44 (141st), Amy Fletcher 36:34 (165th), Julie Wiseman 38:27 (165th) and Jeremy McCandless 39:13.

Several other LSARRC runners and attended parkruns around the country.  At the Avenham 3 lap course in Preston Lorna Jayne Cragg managed the course in 30:40. At the Arrow Valley parkrun Richard Harry Storey was 60th in just over 23 minutes in 23:04. Ian Tate travelled to Warrington and completed the parkrun in 20:33 for 16th position overall. Further afield at the Keswick parkrun Heidi Haigh ran the course in 26:09 for 89th position.  Susan Samme ran brilliantly at Blackpool and secured the first female spot in 20:25.
Sunday saw the junior parkrun at Park View take place, 8 LSARRC completed the course.  Morgan Pritchard and Jayden Richardson came first and second with 7:28 and 7:30, respectively, with Jayden getting a new personal best time.  Oliver Thomson was 5th in 8:38, not far behind was Billy Breakell in 8:42.  Reef Breakell finished in 9:17, Clemmie Tierney achieved a time of 09:41 and Ella Wiseman 09:42 and first timer Bailey Gibbs ran 10:16.

LSARRC News 12th June 2018

LSARRC put in a great team performance at the Welsh Castles relay, and a parkrun record for Susan Samme at Blackpool.

LSARCC took a full team of 20, plus 2 reserves, to Wales for the 36th Welsh Castles Relay weekend. The team this year included 5 ‘Castles’ debutants who all has a fantastic weekend. The challenge, as ever, was to cover the 208 or so miles from Caernarfon to Cardiff as quickly as possible. This year the weather was gloriously sunny throughout, which was great news for the spectators but meant for some tough running conditions for the athletes.

The best result for LSARRC came from Steve Hargreaves who finished the 10.6 miles of stage 13 to Builth Wells in 1:00:31 for 3rd place. His time would have won the stage by over 2 minutes last year. Joe Greenwood also ran a great race on the challenging stage 7, from Dolgellau to Dinas Mawddwy, to finish in 9th place.

Other notable performances across the weekend came from Mel Koth who was amazing over the tough,  and mostly unsupportable, 12.6 miles of the new stage 16 route from Brecon, and from Ross McKelvie, on his maiden Welsh Castles Relay adventure, who finished 33rd on stage 20 in Cardiff, despite severely spraining his ankle at the halfway point.

The team’s overall time to Cardiff of 26 hours 26 minutes and 4 seconds was good enough for LSARRC to finish 40th out of 67 teams in the overall competition and 33rd of 46 teams in the Open category. In what is a very competitive event that includes some top running clubs, this represents a good result for Lytham and all the team should be very proud of their hard efforts.

The full LSARRC team for 2018 was made up of:
Graham Webster, Terry Hellings, Tom Howarth, Als Everest, Dave Dunn, Chris Bowker, Joe Greenwood, Nigel Thompson, Sue Hawitt, Emily Hargreaves, Andy Draper, Mark Hughes, Steve Hargreaves, Paul Veevers, Ian Tate, Mel Koth, Kirsten Burnett, Adrian Sargent, Richard Storey, Ross McKelvie,

Also at the weekend Susan Samme broke the V55 record sat Stanley Park parkrun with 20:18.

Last weekend Pamela Hardman & Julia Rolfe completed the Edenfield Fell Race:  Distance: 10.3km / 6.4m.  Climb: 477m / 1565ft.  Julia finished the event in 1.19.16, and Pam 1.25.35.  The sun was shining and a nice friendly atmosphere. Afterwards drinks /sandwiches/cakes to purchase in the clubhouse.  It would make a great interclub fell race.

BAE Systems site to site walk or run was held on Friday 8th June all money raised was for BLESMA. You could either run or walk Warton to Samlesbury or vice versa. Majority of the participants are walkers and could also bring their dogs. Pamela Hardman ran the distance of 17 miles in 2hr 45, 3rd finisher and 1st lady (runners only) beating her time from last year. Conditions were warm but nice views along the River Ribble.

On 6th June Russ Chew did 3k meeting at Joe Moran event and gained the silver medal for V55.  Rebecca Willetts completed the Windermere Great North Swim.  She was disappointed with her time however she lost time due to difficult conditions when exiting/entering the lake due to the rocky bed.

Parkrun news
At the Leamington parkrun Roy Stevens ran the course in 26:02.  At the Princes parkrun in Liverpool Felicity Wolohan ran 20:41 and finished 2nd female.  At the Lytham parkrun Mark Selby was first home for the club in 20:53 coming 14th, followed by Darran Ames, John Bertenshawe and Morgan Pritchard, all finishing consecutively.  It was a day to gain a personal best for Elizabeth Canavan and Jennifer Hill was the second female finisher.

Full Results:  Mark Selby 20:53 (14th), Darran Ames 20:56 (15th), John Bertenshawe 21:00 (16th), Morgan Pritchard 21:06 (17th), James Buckley 21:32 (21st), Jennifer Hill 21:51 (22nd), Kev Murray 22:26 (31st), Elizabth Canavan 27:24 (95th), Leoma Gill 28:12 (118th), Julie Wiseman 28:20 (121st), Jacqui Murray 29:02 (126th), Pamela Binns 29:45 (140th), Laura Byrne 29:51 (141st), Graham Young 31:12 (160th), Rosa Gill 31:49 (169th), Sarah Bagshaw 33:53 (185th), Ruth Bye 41:54 (224th), and Jeremy McCandless 44:31.

Heidi Haigh completed Blackpool parkrun in 24:26.

A number of juniors completed the junior parkrun on Sunday at Parkview. 4 Lytham runners completed the course, Morgan Pritchard was 1st overall with a time of 7:28, a second of equalling his pb.  Jayden Richardson was second home for the club in 7:37 which was a new personal best time.  Clemmie Tierney ran just under 9 minutes and Jack Greaves completed the course in 10:20.

LSARRC News 5th June 2018

A busy Sunday for LSARRC members, competing in various disciplines around the North West.  Barbara Holmes was second in her age group at the Chester Triathlon and Ian Tate impressed at the Bolton Half Marathon.

Melanie Koth and Barbara Holmes competed on Sunday 3rd June at the Deva Triathlon in Chester in the Olympic Distance (1500m open water swim, 40k bike and 10k run).  The Deva Triathlon is an Olympic distance triathlon held in the centre of the historic City of Chester.   It is currently in its 20th Year and is run by Chester Triathlon Club members. 

Transition took place in the fabulous Grosvenor Park, a fantastic Victorian Park.  The bike route was a single lap (2 laps for the middle distance) into Wales via Eccleston, Rossett and Borras and back into Chester via Alford and Boughton.  The run route incorporated running over the Old Dee Bridge as well as the suspension bridge, along the Groves and in the meadows with the finish being at the Bandstand, a truly City Centre race.

Melanie Koth said that the swim was in the river dee and we swam 800m upstream before we turned and swam 700m downstream. The water was quite cold. The bike was quite flat and took us around the English Cheshire area and some parts of wales. The run was a 3-lap course, but it was very hot indeed.

Melanie Koth finished: overall 599, ladies 144th, v45 16th
In a total time of 02:59:13

Barbara Holmes: overall 271, ladies 45th, v 55 2nd
In a total time of 2:31:04

Ian Tate of Lytham ran the Bolton Half Marathon on Sunday 3rd June 2018, in warm conditions.

One of the Toughest half marathons in the UK although suitable for all abilities with a generous 4-hour time limit, the route takes up Winter Hill and up and over Rivington Pike and back through Barrow Bridge Village to the Finish in Moss Bank Park.  The route was fully marked and supported; it is an out and back course with 50% country road and 50% trail.

Ian Tate ran the course superbly in 1.54.11 and was 10th overall and 1st v40.

Also, on Sunday, Rebecca Willetts and Mike Toft travelled to the Lake District and completed an open water swimming event at Ullswater.

The Ullswater Epic Lakes Swim is event 1 of the Epic Lakes Open Water Swim Series. It takes place from Jenkins Field, in Glenridding, Patterdale and it is a celebration of being British. You can choose either the 500m, the 1 mile or the 'Iron' 3.8k distances, depending upon your age and ability.

Rebecca Willetts opted for the 1-mile swim and finished in 34:30. Mike Toft swam 3.8km in 1:06:32.

Sue Hawitt

Susan Hawitt completed the Morecambe 10k Sunday morning finishing in 51:36 for 131st place out of 366.  A lovely flat course around Morecambe Promenade.

Jayden Richardson

 As usual, over the weekend several Lytham runners completed parkruns, locally and further a field.
At the Lytham Hall parkrun 20 Lytham members completed the course.  First home was Chris McCarthy in 4th place in 18:20, and second female and 10th overall was Joanna Goorney in 20:13.  Junior Jayden Richardson clocked an impressive 21:13 for his first Lytham Hall, 5K parkrun.


Full Results:  Chris McCarthy 19:20 (4th), Joanna Goorney 20:13 (10th), Ross McKelvie 20:39 (13th), Neil Bayntun-Roberts 20:54 (15th), Michelle Hook 20:55 (16th), Jayden Richardson 21:13 (18th), Neil Tate 21:14 (19th), Terry Hellings 21:23 (22nd), Morgan Pritchard 22:17 (35th), Eric Wrigley 23:26 (43rd), Stephen Tate 25:36 (69th), Greg Oulton 27:32 (90th), Kate Benett 29:02 (113rd), Laura Byrne 29:26 (118th), Kirsten Burnett 29:27 (119th), Ruth Bye 30:00 (128th), Karen Lanigan 30:10 (130th), Gillian Oliver 31:15 (139th), Michelle Sheridan 32:26 (146th) and Jeremy McCandless was the tail walker.

Graham Webster ran the Harcoury hill park run in 21.54secs on an undulating all grass 2 lap circuit. Coming 17th from 105 & 1st v65.

At the Preston parkrun Lorna Jayne Cragg finished the 3 lap, difficult course in 32:41.

Ian Tate ran the Pennington Flash parkrun in 21:26 for 12th overall.  At the Ormskirk parkrun saw Finlay Hughes and Mark Hughes running well in, 24:11 and 24:12, respectively.

Felicity Wolohan travelled to Keswick and ran the parkrun there in 21:27and James Buckley completed the Conwy parkrun.

Sunday saw several junior members complete the 2k pakrun in Lytham.  Eric Wrigley, a second under 8 minutes was first home for the club and 4th overall.  Oliver Thomson gained a new pb time of 8:34. Jack Greaves and Sophie Tate also completed the course.

Eric Wrigley