LSARRC 21st December 2014

 

Christmas activities continued for Lytham members into a second week with the December Handicap on the Thursday followed by the Xmas Fun Relay on the Sunday both experiencing the deteriorating weather that made for challenging racing.

 It showed a lot of determination from all the competitors who stoically braved the heavy rain and strong winds that faced runners in the 4.35 miles December club handicap.  Unsurprisingly most ran a little below their best but there were two who defied the bad weather and overcame their handicap.  The very wet winner, Tom Howarth, was pleased to finish ahead of the field as he's been somewhat short of his best in recent months while another to excel was second-placed Neil Tate who amazingly posted a PB.

 After nine races in the annual handicap competition Jeremy McCandless with 253 points retains his commanding lead over the rest. Consistently improving Karen Lanigan moves up into second place on 185 points but competition for the runner-up's medal remains wide open with the final three races still to be contested.

Results: 1, Tom Howarth, 21.46; 2, Neil Tate, 21.31; 3, Derek Caborn, 30.21; 4, Karen Lanigan, 34.14; 5, Pam Binns, 36.09; 6, Jeremy McCandless,  31.13; 7, Greg Oulton,  28.22; 8, Graham Webster,  22.42; 9, Debbie Cooper, 27.59; 10, Richard Storey, 25.46; 11, Mark Selby, 24.14; 12, Dawn Lock, 49.44; N/C Paula McCandless, 41.16; Hannah McCandless, 32.28; Justin Allitt, 23.47; Ian Tate, 26.39.

 

The light-hearted Christmas Fun Relays are a long established annual event at the Club and this year saw the usual mix of Santas, reindeer and elves battling their way along Lytham Green.

 A strong cross wind made for a most challenging 'fun run', especially in fancy dress, but all finished in high spirits.  Santa Joe Greenwood ran the quickest leg while juniors Rebecca and Matthew bravely ran the full 5k course and finished in very good times.  

1.  Turkeys (1h 12m 39s) Ruth Wheatley 27.39; Ian Tate 23.36; Mark Selby 21.24.

2.  Puddings (1h 23m 07s) Dawn Lock 39.46; Colin Laidlaw 22.58; Joe Greenwood 20.23.

3.  Sprouts (1h 24m 17s) Pam Binns 34.03; Greg Oulton 29.11; Neil Tate 21.03.

4.  Robins (1h 28m 13s) Matthew 32.01; Rebecca 29.10; Julia Rolfe 27.02.

Elsewhere four Lytham members ran the Rudolph's Red Nose Race, a flattish 5 mile tour of Heron's Reach won by racing regular Jason Parker of Preston Harriers in 28:24 who led in a field of 155. 

 

First Lytham runner across the line was first MV50 Peter Cruse who finished in 32:27 for 10th overall.  Dawn Bloor, in fine form in spite of a tough headwind, achieved her club silver standard with a 40:00 finish for 53rd place.  Already having got her silver standard at three distances, she needed a five miles silver time before her next birthday in January and took her final chance with the Rodolph's Race.  Brian Porter, MV45, was 92nd in 45:29 and two places later Sylvia Gittins finished in 45:33 to take the FV65 prize.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

LSARRC 16th December 2014

CHRISTMAS CELEBRATIONS

Lytham St. Annes RRC Seniors kicked off its Christmas celebrations this week with the Christmas Party.  Held at the St. Ives Hotel and attended by nearly forty members, it was an enjoyable and successful occasion.

On Thursday the second of the three events takes place with the Monthly Handicap given a more seasonal flavour with a get-together and Christmas quiz following the race.  The 3.45 mile winter course, starting and finishing on the corner of Ballam Road, takes in both the Forest Drive and Hall Park Estates and with apt handicapping, has finishers streaming across the line in close succession.

To date three-time winner Jeremy McCandless has a convincing lead with 228 points over nearest rivals Alex Wiggins on 169 points with one win and Joe Greenwood, third, with163 points.  Further down the table are Graham Webster on 161, Karen Lanigan on 158, Dawn Lock on 157, Greg Oulton on 154 and Debbie Cooper on 141.  With a maximum score each month of 30 points plus 2 bonus points for personal and seasonal bests, McCandless has set a tough challenge but December marks the ninth race and with nine out of the twelve to count, positions could change as competitors drop their weakest score.  

 Third of the trio of Christmas events is the Xmas Fun Relays on Sunday 21st.  Starting and finishing by Lytham Windmill ad hoc teams of three will complete a 5k course.  The range of colourful fancy dresses, pictured from a previous year, is shown off to full advantage by the backdrop of Lytham Windmill and The Green.

 

 

Not to be outdone the Junior Section turned their regular Monday Sports Hall training christmassy.  The usual training routines for the youngest members, mostly under 11, include curling, sliding beanbags along the floor onto targets and standing-start jumps but add a reindeer obstacle course with the ladders, hurdles and marker cones and team party games all done wearing tinsel, reindeer antlers and Santa hats and rewarded with sweets and the usual skill-based team games become real fun.

 

The weekend saw Lytham members taking part in other festive races.  There are easier ways of gaining a Christmas pudding than by running the Longridge Xmas Pudding 7 Miles but this long-standing race attracted two from Lytham.  From the start line competitors climb the main street, turn left and head along the switchback road leading to Jeffrey Hill with the steepest hands-on-hips climb coming just before the highest point followed by a helter-skelter descent to the finish.  Peter Cruse went for his second pudding in a week following the Glaxo Pudding 10K with Longridge. Running amid 244 competitors, Cruse finished 8th in a very good time of 45:35, just two places short of taking the first MV50 prize.  Sylvia Gittins was 176th in 1:07:55, first FV65.

 Lytham members have notched up big successes recently in the Liverpool Cross-Challenge and the North West CSSC Awards. 

The Liverpool Cross-Challenge doubles as the European Selection and the third round of the Mid Lancs League and attracts a host of the stars of the sport.  Young Zane Seddon running in his first season of cross-country and for Lytham took second overall in the Under 11's.  His time of 7:10 was the second fastest for the 1.9k course in a field of 155 making this quite an achievement.  Also appearing in the pages of Athletics Weekly in the same event was Graham Webster, second MV60, with a time of 40:56 in the Senior Men's 9.8k.

 

The Awards Ceremony recognized LSARRC member Barbara Holmes as North West CSSC Sports Person of the year.  She adds this title to her World Age Category Biathle Championship, a combination of swimming and running, won in Guatemala in early October.

 

 

LSARRC News 9th December 2014

Fiona, Felicity and Dawn happy with their PBs

The main attraction of the weekend was the Guy's 10 mile Road Race.  Organised by Garstang Running Club, this race over a flat country course starts and finishes at Guy's Thatched Hamlet, Bilsborrow, near Garstang.  Luckily the earlier rain had stopped but it was still quite breezy.  Gary Pennington of Preston Harriers was first man home in this popular race in a time of 54:46.  A loose horse which had slipped its reins near the start caused panic in some runners who had to move to the side of the lane out of its way.

Colin Laidlaw

It was success all around for Lytham ladies.  Felicity Wolohan clocked 1:16:31 for 148th place with a PB and and also achieved her club bronze standard for 10 miles. Likewise, Fiona Geldard achieved a PB of 1:20:51 in 185th place and her gold standard for a vet 50 while Dawn Bloor ran a PB in 1:25:43 for 229th place achieving a silver standard in the vet 45 age category.  She was particularly pleased with this since she had not been well for the last 10 days.  Finally, Sylvia Gittins was 2nd vet 65 in a time of 1:30:44 finishing in 275th place overall.

Terry followed by Felicity

First home for Lytham St Annes was Tom Howarth in 33rd place in a time of 1:04:30.  Graham Webster was next back in 56th place in 1:06:50 and first male vet 60.  Colin Laidlaw was 141st in a time of 1:16:06 and Terry Hellings was 149th in 1:16:31







Peter Cruse ran the Hoad Hill Harriers Xmas Pudding 10K in Ulverston - in a race of 357 finishers won by Marc Browne of Keswick AC in 33:00.  Peter finished 22nd and 1st vet 50 in 38:21.

On Saturday morning, Julia Rolfe headed to Avenham Park Preston for the weekly Preston ParkRun.  She finished 67th overall and 8th lady in a time of 25:30.

Last weekend, Colin Laidlaw headed off to the Bay of Biscay, Spain for the BMW Lurauto 37th International San Sebastian Marathon. As well as the marathon, there was a half marathon and a 10k race.  Colin chose to do the half marathon finishing in 731st position out of over 1500 runners in a time of 1:42:06.

LSARRC News 2nd December 2014

LSARRC Ladies at Liverpool

After the lull of racing over the last few weeks, there was plenty of action this last weekend.

On Saturday morning, it was the Wesham 10k.  First home for Lytham, was Peter Cruse in 26th place, 37:53 and 2nd Vet 50.  Tom Howarth was 57th in 40:16, Mark Willett 83rd in 41:41, Mark Selby 104th in 43:10, Louisa Ruman 240th in 51:06 and celebrating his 51st birthday and wearing race number 51, was Brian Porter in 54:06 and 291st place.
In the afternoon, the action headed over to Sefton Park, Liverpool for the first race in the The British Athletics Cross Challenge series.  As well as being used as the European Cross Country Trials, the Mid Lancs League and another local league are invited to take part to increase the numbers, benefit from the high quality of the event and the exciting atmosphere.

In the under 11 girls, first home for LSARR was Rebecca Tate in 9:23 and 33rd place.  Georgia Norman was 41st in 9:40 and Charlotte Thomson was 49th in 10:19.  Zane Seddon had another fantastic run to finish just 11 seconds and in 2nd place behind the Fraser Sproul from Kendal AAC in a time of 7:10 in the under 11 boys.  In 7th place was Louis Eunson in 7:47 and Aaron Forshaw finished in 18 place in 8:21.

There were 2 LSARR juniors in the under 13 girls race.  Hollie Winstanley finished in

Neil Tate

29th place in 13:32 and Isla Gorden in 45th place in 15:01.

Ella Moulding finished 5th in the under 15 girls in 11 :37 with Chloe Norman coming in 30th place in 13:26

Terry Hellings

The Senior Womens race in the Mid Lancs league was won by Sarah Tunstall of Kendal AAC in 29:20.  First home for LSARR was Mel Koth in 38:21.  Felicity Wolohan finished in 39:24 closely followed by Fiona Geldard in 39:31.  Julia Rolfe finished in 42:22, Sylvia Gittins in 45:35, Karen Lanigan in 54:11 and Dawn Lock in 1:05:30.
  
Peter Huck of Barrow in Furness won the mens race in 30:28 finishing 16th in the overall event.  Joe Greenwood was back first for LSARR in 35:33.  Neil Tate finished in 39: 37, Graham Webster in 49:56, Terry Hellings in 44:42 and Greg Oulton in 52:59.

The seven Senior Women managed to make up full teams in the Open, V35 and V45.  Lying in top spot of the WV45 before Liverpool and with a 7 point lead, the ladies hopefully did well enough to hold onto their lead.

In Sunday's bright unseasonably warm sunshine Preston's Moor Park had never looked better and provided a splendid setting for the Best 5K.  One hundred and thirty-nine competitors including two from Lytham enjoyed the weather and an improved course.  Oliver Hirsh, battling to recover his pre-injury standard, ran 21:33 for 30th place and Dawn Lock finished 132nd in 36:00 for first FV65.

On Lytham Green, it was the inaugural Movember 10k,  Petr Martinovsky sporting a beard and mou


stache for the month finished in 42:43 and 15th place.  Ruth Wheatley finished in 51:53 and 99th place.

Greg Oulton was back out on the fells for the David Staff Memorial Fell Race which started in Sunnyhurst Park in Darwen and headed up to Darwen Tower.  Unfortunately due to work by United Utilities, the course had to be re-routed and ended up being closer to 4 miles instead of 5 miles with a much steeper climb at the start.  Greg finished in 135th place in 44:29.

Last Thursday, saw the club's November handicap. There were many good performances with nine runners beating their target time, most notably Jeremy McCandless, Mark Selby, Alex Wiggins and Neil Tate who all ran PBs.  However, it was scratch runner Dawn Lock who ran at her best to stay ahead of the rest of the field and merit a well-deserved victory while McCandless continues to comfortably head the overall annual points table with a lead of 59 points over his closest rival Wiggins.. For the others, the competition for the runners-up silver medal remains wide open with many still in contention.

Full results: 1, Dawn Lock, 46.12:  2, Greg Oulton, 28.00: 3, Derek Caborn, 30.20: 4, Mark Selby, 22.49 PB. 5, Jeremy McCandless, 30.51 PB:  6, Debbie Cooper, 27.24: 7, Karen Lanigan,34.09: 8, Alex Wiggins, 26.01 PB: 9, Graham Webster, 22.08: 10, Neil Tate, 21.42 PB: 11, Joe Greenwood, 19.46: 12, Julia Rolfe, 28.12: 13, Richard Storey, 25.35: 14, Tom Howarth, 22.28: 15, Pam Binns, 35.47.

LSARRC News 25th November 2014

Sylvia Gittins - 1st vet 65 at Conwy Half Marathon

There were no races on the Fylde coast this last week and runners needed to travel further afield, the closest being the Chorley Fire Fighters 10k which didn't attract any LSARRC athletes.  Instead, 2 members Ruth Wheatley and Sylvia Gittins headed to North Wales for the Conwy Half Marathon.  The race started at Conwy Castle, then went to Llandudno, around the Great Orme and then back to the castle again.  Conditions were perfect, 10 degrees, barely a breath of wind and a bright, sometimes sunny, morning.  The first four miles were flattish, then a drag up the Orme of about 3 miles, a 2 mile descent and then four back home again.  The Orme was tough for a Fylde coast runner.  Someone on recognising Ruth's vest and coming from the Fylde coast even joked about the hill.  Despite the hill though, Ruth still achieved a PB of 1:57:54 while Sylvia completed the course in 2:03:59 finishing first vet 65.

Ruth Wheatley and Tim Armitt at Conwy Half Marathon

Dawn Lock took the opportunity of a lull in the road racing calendar to go orienteering, a sport that has been in Britain for around 50 years and she has followed for more than 30 years.  Local club South Ribble Orienteering held two fixtures in the week: the third round of the popular Street League and the third and final event of the Autumn Series.

The street league, which involves a limited-time run around town streets seeking the answer to clues consisting of lamppost, hydrant and telegraph pole numbers, is hotly contested by around 50 competitors from the three southern clubs in the NWOA.  This week's event was at Penwortham with the 75 minute course won with a excellent score of 1599 points and the 60 minute course with 1041.  Lock finished 24th on the shorter course with a score of 540 points.

The weekend Autumn Series returned to Williamson Park in Lancaster after a particularly gruelling second round at Eaves Wood in Silverdale.  This time it was a cross-country where the 28 controls had to be found in the correct order in the shortest time possible.  The green course was won in a fast 37:13.  Dawn finished 10th out of 14 in 72:25 and took the W60+ series prize.

After last week's action at the second Mid Lancs Cross Country fixture at Barrow, next Saturday (29th) sees LSARRC runners heading to Sefton Park, Liverpool for the first race in the The British Athletics Cross Challenge series.  As well as being used as the European Cross Country Trials, this prestigious race is also being used as the third race in the Mid Lancs Cross Country league and so should be an excellent event.

LSARRC News 18th November 2014

Saturday saw the 2nd fixture in the Mid Lancs Cross Country Series with runners making the long trek up to Thorncliffe, Barrow in Furness.  Despite the distance, there was an excellent turnout from LSARR both in the junior and senior races.

3 LSARR juniors competed in the under 11 girls in a field of 42 with Anna Mason of Border Harriers first home in 6:56.  Rebecca Tate was 10th in 7:33, Georgia Norman 19th in 8:12 and Olivia Aberra 25th in 8:28.  In the under 11 boys, new recruit to LSARRC Zane Seddon improved on sixth place at Hyndburn to finish second in a 6:23 in only his second time of running for the Club ahead of a field of 31.  Holly Winstanley and Rosie Taylor ran in the under 13 girls race.  Holly was 14th in 12:32 while Rosie was 21st in 13:20. In the under 15 girls, Ella Moulding finished second in 13:34 behind Emma Whittaker of L&M in13:20 while Chloe Norman was 38th in16:32.

Layla Foley making her debut in the Senior Women's race

The senior women's race was won by Caroline Baxter of Lancaster & Morcambe in a clear lead in 20:07.  Joanna Goorney finished 9th in 21:02.  Layla Foley, still an under 20, finished 20th in 22:00 still counting for the first time in the Senior team.  Fiona Geldard made up the final member in 26:15 and 57th place.  Julia Rolfe was 61st in 26:47,  Dawn Bloor was 66th  in 27:08, Sylvia 87th in 30:37 and Dawn Lock 109th in 41:41.  The women were 4th Vet 35 team and 1st vet 45 team for the second time on the trot – an excellent result.

Neil Tate

Tom Howarth

In the Senior Men's race, the winner Chris Farrell giving Horwich RMI the second winner of the series in 29:22, taking the race from last year's Men's Champion James Douglas of Border Harriers by 8 seconds in a hard fought race.  First home for LSARR was Joe Greenwood in 35th and 33:49.  Tom Howarth was 64th in 36:19, Neil Tate 71st in 36:46, Graham Webster 89th in 37:51, Terry Hellings 130th in 40:47, Nigel Simpkin was172nd in 46:30 and Greg Oulton was182nd in 48:30.
Graham, Terry, Nigel and Greg made up the V40 team and Graham Terry and Nigel made up the v50 team.

Felicity Wolohan at the Preston 10 mile race

The following day, LSARR was in action again at the Preston 10 mile road race, with 4 runners having done the cross country the previous day.  This fast flat course in calm autumnal sun shine saw winner Tom Charles of Trafford AC finish in a time of 52.14.  First in for Lytham was Simon Denye, just missing out in going under the hour in 1:00:01 but still setting an excellent PB.  Next was v55 Peter Cruse in 41st position in a time of 62 :25.  Tom Haworth in 65th position in a time of 65 :32 with Neil Tate in 74th in 1:06:23 and also setting a PB.  Closely following was V60 Graham Webster  who was 76th, in 1:06:29. First Lytham Lady home, was Felicity Woolahan in a PB of 1:18:22 and 226th place. Second lady was Fiona Geldard FV50, finishing in 1:24:51 taking 298th position and a PB and finally Pam Hardman V55 came in 340th in 1:29:01. Willie Richmond pulled out through injury.  There were 431 finishers.

LSARRC News 12th November 2014

 

2 stalwart members of the club, Kevin and Laura Ashworth are relocating down to Devon next week and club members joined them for leaving drinks on Friday night.  They will be sorely missed.
 

Joe Greenwood

Pam Hardman

The main race of the weekend was the Lytham Windmill 10k on Sunday morning.  Held in perfect Autumn sunshine, conditions were perfect on the fast flat course.  Lytham was well represented with nine runners.  First home for LSARR was Joe Greenwood in 6th place an in a time of 35:08 and PB.  There were also huge PBs for Neil Tate who finished in 34th place and 38:21 and Dawn Bloor who was  206th in 48:32 knocking exactly 3 and half minutes off her previous PB and was very pleased.  Petr Martinovsky was 64th in 41:31 and Chris Blackburn was 95th in 42: 54.  Ruth Wheatly was 229th in 49:54, Pam Hardman was 256th in 51:04, Graham Young was 385th in 55:52 and Liz Hedgecock was 387th in 56:09.  It was a welcome return for Catherine French, completing her first race in over a year after a foot surgery.  She finished in 546th place in 1:02:01.

Kev Ashworth, Dawn Bloor, Cath French, Pam Hardman and Laura Ashworth

Last Sunday (1st Nov), John Wild completed the Helvellyn 15K trail race on finishing 279th out 465 in a time of 1 hour 42.