Hello all
Thank you for all the race reports this week, if anyone has any other reports or races I have missed please send them over to helsby-race-reports@outlook.com and I can include in the blog.
Firstly some reminders…
- Tattenhall Tough Team on Friday 19th June & Grocontinental Relay on Thursday 9th July at Dearnford Lake.
- Colin Thompson is coordinating the mens teams, if you wish to be involved in either of the events please email him col808@hotmail.com
- Jane Ashbrook is coordinating the ladies teams janebetts@gmail.com
Joe has asked me to remind everyone of two fell races coming up:
- Up the Beast. A popular fell race with the club is this Wednesday 10th June 7.15pm start. The race is in Maeshafn near Mold. Check out our Facebook page for lift sharing. Details of the race can be found here: http://www.fellrunner.org.uk/races.php?id=3618
- Hot foot up the Famau. One of our mini fell counters on Wednesday 17th June 7.30pm start. All details and directions here: http://fellrunner.org.uk/races.php?id=3575
And there is a road counter coming up at the end of June:
- Penny Lane 10k (road counter) Sunday 28th June. Probably best to get entries in now although I believe you can enter on the day providing the limit isn’t reached.
Deestriders Off Road GP (4.5m)
Thursday saw the first race in the Deestriders off road GP. This is a great little race series (4 to do) with a mix of flat grass, tarmac footpaths and trail so nothing too challenging with only a couple of sharp undulations. We had 3 runners out for the Green Army, Colin Thompson, Jim O’Hara and Dave Madders with Colin first back for Helsby.
Helsby results below:
3rd Colin Thompson 27.05 (1st in age cat)
6th Jim O’Hara 28.29
41st Dave Madders 34.59
Full results here: http://www.deestridersrunningclub.net/Results/OFRJUNE2015.pdf
The next race is on 2nd July http://www.deestridersrunningclub.net/Forms/OffRoadEntryForm2015.pdf
Halewood 5k
Dave Madders was our sole Helsby representative at the Halewood 5k. Fantastic running saw him belt out a 21.48 and 2nd in his age category. Well done Dave!
Full results here: https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&pid=sites&srcid=ZGVmYXVsdGRvbWFpbnxoYWxld29vZDVrcmVzdWx0c3NlcnZpY2V8Z3g6NDRiNDJiMDQ4ZThmNjE0Yw
For anyone who is unaware of this race series, they are monthly timed 5k races, Saturday 10am at the Halewood Environment Centre. The course is fast and traffic free and best of all they are totally free!
Mersey Tunnel 10k
Another big event from the BTR team on Sunday saw the annual Mersey Tunnel 10k which is a unique race in that it’s one of the few times you can traverse the tunnel on foot. The course is fairly straight forward, start is at Blackstock Street at the Wallasey tunnel entrance, through the tunnel and up onto Egremont promenade with the finish a few miles north at New Brighton Promenade. As always with BTR races the organisation was fantastic – like a well-oiled machine and with a lovely bit of bling at the finish, nice tech-tee-shirt & goody bag plus a unique racing experience I’d say it’s just about worth the entrance fee. The results? Only 2 Helsby runners out for this as far as I can tell, windy conditions on the prom scuppered any chances of a PB with myself managing 36.56 and Carl 43.59. A huge turn-out of runners saw over 2500 finishers so a good result for the Green Army. One of the highlights for me was finding myself detached from the lead group and running on my own only for a police motorbike to appear and pace me along the promenade! It felt like I was race leader!
13th Colin Thompson 36.56
156th Carl Pratt 43.5
http://www.tdl.ltd.uk/race-results.php?event=1899
Welsh 1000m Peaks
Chris Baynham-Hughes has sent in this fantastic race report for the Welsh 1000m. Over to you Chris…
“It was a tough day in the office on the awesome Welsh 1000m peaks race. Gusts of up to 45mph predicted, I reckon is was persistent and easily 60+ as it knocked me sideways plenty of times. I was convinced I had windburn on my tongue at one point! Three of the Fellsby regulars were there to take on this challenge which is at the more extreme end of fell racing.
To give you a true image of this race you need a bit of history. It’s a highlight of my calendar and a race I’ve been doing for the past 5 years as it robbed me of all my dignity on my first outing and I vowed to get it back one year. Still not had the perfect race, but maybe next year! In the first year I spent 3 minutes sat on the Gribbin ridge wondering what to do, the race had totally put me on my backside and I genuinely didn’t know if I was going to complete it.
Last year in-form Jimmy O’Hara arrived suitably nervous of just how enormous the task was. By his own admission, Jimmy learnt a lot that day, having been caught short on the Carneddau due to a freak beetroot shot type drink (something cyclists drink apparently) and also due to carrying about 6+ kg of excess baggage. This year he arrived lean and mean. For Max it was his first time on the course, so would he suffer the same fate?
Personally I had a terrible first leg (over the Carneddau) but got stronger and finished just over the magic 5 hours, but given the ridiculous wind that I couldn’t even move forward against at more than one point, and my lack of mountain work recently I was very happy with that…. plus I only screamed out loud at the wind twice.
As always Snowdon was packed with tourists and 3 peaks challengers. Knowing there was a slight possibility I could dip under the 5 hours I gave it everything to get up there. Just as I was arriving at the fingerstone on the Snowdon ridge I heard, “Good afternoon Christopher” – I looked up to see Max. The conversation went like this:
“Hey, nice one, did you win it?”
“Did I **** I haven’t even finished yet!”
“What are you doing, you’re 2 minutes from the top!”
“Have you got any food?”
“I’ve got a gel if you want it?”
“Nah…… …….err… Yes please”
(me 5 yards on from Max’s position) “I’ll chuck it down here, I can’t make it back down again!”
We both finished completely spent, which would have been fine if the café had been open. Alas not. I was helped into my waterproofs by a Buckley runner (just spectating this time) and it wasn’t long before Max and I were helping another runner off the mountain as they were struggling with exposure.
Do once again the Welsh 1000s had proved itself worth of turning even the most talented of fell runners to their knees on their first outing. I genuinely believe that this race can put you on your backside like no other, but then again, that’s part of the appeal. It’s a genuine test and a genuine adventure. I totally recommend it! That said, after 3 outings on this race it might just be time to retire these shoes.”
Jimmy O’Hara – 4:51:55 ish – 19th
CBH – 5:06:43 ish – 31st
Max – 5:15:37 ish – 35th
http://www.welsh1000m.org/results/results_A.html
Massive well done to Chris, Max and Jimmy, great going lads.
Lakeland Trail Coniston Marathon
Lesley has sent in another excellent report. Seems she can’t stop racing at the moment!
“I completed the Lakeland Trail Coniston Marathon this weekend. The weather was ideal with cool temperatures and light drizzle for the first half of the race and warm sunshine for the last couple of hours. The course is marshalled and follows a mainly high level route around Lake Coniston taking in a circuit of Tarn Hows. The route is mainly on trails that are very runnable and the scenery is great. I was aiming for 5 hours and finished in 4 hours 55 mins, 138 out of 214 finishers. I would recommend this race but Lakeland Trails are not cheap at £44 and I have to say the feed stations do not compare to the LDWA events, a few crisps were all that was on offer by the time I got there, no t- shirts in my requested size and only 5 portaloos for hundreds of runners, not that I’m moaning! Locally organised events like the fells are much better value and have a friendlier feel in my opinion.”
Well done Lesley on achieving your sub 5 hours!
Parkrun
Please find below the results from our weekly parkruns. Congratulations to Neil Finegan, Louise McEveley and Joanne Lacking for all getting on the podium at their respective parkruns and a new PB from David Wiggins at Delamere. Good stuff people!
Warrington parkrun
6 Michael WILLIAMS 00:23:49
Delamere parkrun
3 Neil FINEGAN 00:18:30
23 Jim JONES 00:20:36
35 Scot STEEL 00:21:24
123 David WIGGINS 00:25:46
170 Donna GEER 00:28:08
239 Rachel ARNOLD 00:32:05
263 Paul BULMER 00:34:25
264 Stephen WIGGINS 00:34:29
275 Ivor JOHNSTONE 00:35:16
288 Jen O’HARE 00:37:42
Lyme Park parkrun
21 Louise MCEVELEY 00:24:42
Ellesmere Port parkrun
17 Benjamin John WILLIAMS 00:22:42
Widnes parkrun
13 Joanne LACKING 00:21:20
45 Chris HATTON 00:26:06
That’s all this week, again if I have missed anything please let me know and I can always update the blog later on.
Happy running all!
Colin