Helsby weekly round-up 2nd to 8th November 2015

Hi everyone
Welcome to this weeks round-up. Thank you to everyone who sent a report in this week, as always it’s very much appreciated so please keep them coming. The email address is helsby-race-reports@outlook.com.
Now on to the news. We had a borders and XC clash this weekend so it was great to see a full brace of mens and ladies teams at both races. Thanks once again to Chris Fitz and Vanessa for rallying the troops for the borders. We also had two of our runners competing in a new ultra in the racing calendar, the Warrington Way 40m. More info on those races below but first up we had the the intrepid Ben Williams partaking in the epic LDWA Kilburn Kanter on Saturday. Over to Ben for his report:
Just a quick report from the LDWA Kilburn Kanter event in North Yorkshire. 24 miles, 3850 foot of climb.
I woke on Saturday morning to the rain beating on the windows. As I drove from York to Kilburn (home of the famous White Horse) the rain got worse. The organisers had to abandon the plan to park on a field because we would never have got on, or off again afterwards. Tea and toast at the start, and then we were off. I had wanted to beat last year’s time of 5.48, but had to abandon any plans to run to a time as soon as we started – grassy paths were ankle deep in mud, stony paths had become streams and the roads were rivers. Last year was dry underfoot,  this year it felt like two steps forward and one slide backwards. At one point an uphill footpath was only passable by using the adjacent fence to pull myself up, my feet sliding along behind. As soon as we gained height the mist closed in, making navigation occasionally a challenge. The rain continued to come down as I passed through several cute villages, plenty of farms and the odd moor, until it suddenly cleared as I climbed up Sutton Bank to the last checkpoint. The last three miles was a warm and sunny delight, apart from the squelch of wet clothes and trainers. The food at the finish was as welcome as ever.
Numbers seemed a bit down this year, despite the event being sold out – LDWA events are ridiculously cheap, but I guess the downside of that is that entrants can easily decide not to bother if the weather’s bad.
Oh, and my time? 5.21. Smashed it.
No idea how.
Ed: great stuff Ben, you just keep getting better. Hard training is paying off this year!
Warrington Way 40m Ultra

Also on Saturday was the inaugural Warrington Way 40m ultra excellently organised by Lymm Runners.  Helsby were represented by Jim and Jackie.

The circular route certainly took in the ”sites” of Warrington; parts of the Trans Pennine Way, enough cow and crop fields for life, brown field sites, canal paths, cow slurry farm tracks, the humming of traffic alongside and across motorways and A roads plus even a power station (Fidders Ferry). Taking in Warburton, Birchwood, Croft, Burtonwood, Widnes, Sankey Valley, Moore, Walton, Hatton to name a few places en-route.

There were well organised check points after each 10 miles, with lots of support, drinks, jelly beans and other childhood favourite sweets and biscuits.    Support along the way from Warrington folks and runners was really good and encouraging. The solo entries were limited to about 100 but there were also 20 relay teams (4 legs of 10 miles) so it wasn’t too lonesome out on the course!. 4 waterproof maps with instructions were issued at the event, so you really had to navigate around, although green and white tape has been put at intervals along the route (but as usual there were many gaps so could not be relied on!).   I reccied the last 12 miles from Moore the week before in case I was too tired to read the instructions and map plus I though I could well be doing this section in the dark.

Surprise surprise, I managed to keep a steady pace up and keep running most of the way, apart from the really glooopy sticky parts!  In one way doing a flat race was more difficult, physically and certainly mentally, as there were less breaks and variations in stride, plus the mountainous views to take your mind off the running were certainly missing!   The continuous flat really does take it out of your legs, the loading on the hips and knees is much less than the fells but the intensity on your leg muscles is intense, so several days later I still have a swaggering walk!

It was excellent to see a full team out for both the mens and ladies team for the borders league on Sunday, especially since we had a clash with an XC on the same day and a few injuries within the squad. Although both teams finished bottom of division 1 the important thing is to get a full team out as we are not too far behind at the moment so we can always claw back some points over the season. Fitzy lead the charge for the men storming around to finish first for the Helsby men and Jo Lacking is showing some superb form to take the chequered flag for the ladies. We also had a couple of category podiums which can be seen in the results below. Well done everyone! Lets hope we can keep getting a big turn out at each race as we have a great strength in numbers in our club which will pay off later in the season, I’m sure Fitzy and Vanessa will be rallying the troops soon for the next one. Also thank you to Joe and Mario for their support on the day, it really gives our runners a spring in their step when they hear Joe shouting his words of encouragement!
Helsby results below
35^th Chris FITZPATRICK 32:57
50^th Adam GORDON 33:34
57^th Neil FINEGAN 33:47
84^th Jim O’HARA 35:04
103^rd Jim HIGGINS 35:51
119^th Ian LANDUCCI 36:31
124^th Ian RUTHERFORD 36:40
131^st Ian HAMLING 36:54
132^nd Joanne LACKING 36:57
151^st Chris MURRAY 37:32
178^th Neil HUGHES 39:10
180^th John ROSSITER 39:17
187^th Dave MADDERS 39:33
208^th Roy GASKILL 40:20
212^th Geoff READ 40:29
218^th Stephen ROACH 40:37
229^th Helen OWENS 41:05
239^th Carol SHAW 41:24
240^th Michael WILLIAMS 41:25
268^th Geoff COLLINS 43:01
275^th Geoff SHAW 43:25
280^th Stephen WIGGINS 43:39
282^nd Debbie READ 43:43 (2^nd in age cat)
295^th Jenn NAYLOR 44:46
299^th Rachael HOLDEN 45:04
315^th Ellie MCCARTHY 46:38
324^th David WIGGINS 47:11
338^th Gill FITZPATRICK 48:25
343^rd Shan MCCARTHY 48:59
354^th Nicola CASH 51:25
367^th Janet SHAW 54:02 (2^nd in age cat)
Full results here http://www.bordersleague.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/results2015-16R2.html
Team results here http://www.bordersleague.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/teamresults2015-16R2.html
XC Sunday League Race #2 (Stadt Moers Park)
We also had a good turn out at the XC Sunday League, the results still haven’t been published for this so I am unable to show the race positions but a big well done to all who took part and as soon as more info is available I will update the blog. In the meantime, keep an eye on this link for the results http://www.stevesaunders.co.uk/openingframe.htm
Ed: results now in, please see Helsby results below:
Men
16^th Benjamin Fletcher
75^th Gareth Boyd
136^th Stephen Riley
143^rd John Whitehead
179^th  Paul Foster
193^rd Chris Hatton
Ladies
5^th June Swift
8^th Jenny Illidge
18^th Laura Baynham-Hughes
30^th Janet Robertson
53^rd Suzanne Fletcher
59^th Lesley Feakes
Great results which put the ladies team into 3rd place on the day and the men were 6th. Don’t forget the next one is on 22nd November at Beacon Park, Skelmersdale.
 

parkrun
Please find the results for the Saturday parkruns. Well done to all who took part, some great results!
Delamere
59^th Geoff COLLINS 00:25:25
90^th Jenny ILLIDGE 00:27:46
Widnes
26^th Michael WILLIAMS 00:25:27
Social
Social planner Fitzy has asked me to send a reminder out for the Helsby RC Xmas do. Please see his message below:
Friday Dec 4th is the Christmas night out, I know I’ve seen a Helsby Community Sports Club night out advertised on the 5th with a meal and all that, but the official running club parrrrrrrrteeeeeeeee is the 4th, mind you show your support for the one on the 5th as well if you think your hard enough to handle 2 nights on the bounce, don’t go overboard though Borders league race on the 6th 🙂
7.30pm Helter Skelter, I’ll send a few more reminders nearer the time.
That’s all this week. Thanks once again for the reports and keep on running!
Cheers
Colin