Hi everyone
Firstly apologies for the delay this week, been waiting on a couple of reports. This week we had 2 marathons, an XC a 10k and a hellraiser! All will become clear on that last one with Debbie Reads fab report!
Before we get to the news Fitzy and Vanessa have asked me to send out the info for this Sundays Borders League in Chester (nice and local for us lot!). All the information can be found in the PDF link below. We need a good turn out for this folks so if you can spare an hour or two on Sunday morning to support the club it would be much appreciated. For info we need 10 men and 4 ladies for a complete team. Please be aware that the start time for this one is 10am.
chester-bl-runners-info
Lausanne Marathon Weekend (10k option)
It’s great to see Richard Hankins running so well at the Lausanne 10k. Richard is a fairly new member but is already showing big improvements in his race times since joining the club. His report can be found below, thanks Richard.
“This is an fantastic weekend of running that the whole family can enjoy: on the Saturday there are children’s races of ten different distances and age groups. My children and niece and nephew all took part in these. They are well organised and enclosed within the park so very safe and family friendly. There are also walking events of various distances and styles (Nordic, speed, leisurely). The Sunday is the serious business with a beautiful marathon that mostly follows Lake Geneva and a half marathon on a one way route from Vevey to Lausanne. My brother and I, however, did the 10K. A fast but undulating route starting in the City by the main park, heading out of town on wide closed roads into the Swiss countryside before circling back through the cobbled streets of a small village and finishing on the banks of Lake Geneva at Ouchy. The quality of the runners was breathtaking with the first man (Bernard Matheka)coming in at 28.18 and the first woman (Delia Sclabas) at 34.16. A fast and flowing course I came in 44th out of 625 vet 40s at 39:42 (a PB and first sub 40 10K). My brother came in just behind me at 79th vet 40 at 42:23. For those who fancy a European escapade this event is well worth the cost and hassle.”
Halloween Hellraiser
This event looked like a cracker and the feedback is always excellent, entry fee is a bargain too! Maybe one to consider as a club counter next year perhaps? Debbie Read has sent in the following report, thanks Debbie.
“On an appropriate drizzly Sunday morning Suzanne and Debbie took part in South Cheshire Harriers’ 10 mile multi terrain race – Halloween Hellraiser in Nantwich. It was a lovely event, enjoyed by them both – very well organised with lots of encouraging marshals. Excellent club facilities with showers, hot food and drinks available. All runners got a goody bag which had a towel and a bottle of beer. Suzanne’s husband Ben cycled out and did a wonderful impression of Joe and Mario popping out and about on the course with much appreciated encouragement. Fancy dress was optional and Suzanne found herself being chased by the Grim Reaper!”
Dublin Marathon
A report should appear for this soon and I will update the blog accordingly but in the meantime it’s a massive well done to the ladies who took part in the Dublin marathon on Sunday – Donna Geer, Jenny O’Hare, Louise McEveley and Nesta Hawker, some of them in their first ever marathon! Jo Farwell went over to support also. Can’t wait to read the report for what looked like a fantastic weekend.
Snowdonia Marathon
Jim Jones just can’t stay away from the long hilly stuff and found himself toeing the line at the Snowdonia Marathon with 3 other green vests. Advertised as the “toughest marathon in the racing calendar” it isn’t for the faint hearted but Jim and the chaps took it all in their stride and ran a fabulous race. Over to Jim for his full report…
“Four of us took on the Snowdonia Marathon this year. Jim O’hara was first back for Helsby in a brilliant time of 3:18 – nearly 7 minutes faster than last year. Jim O’Hara was followed by Jim Jones at 3:53, Derek Morris at 4:05 and Graham Lloyd at 4:55. Conditions were good with some light rain at the start. The course is mostly on road but with a steep descent on trail for the last couple of miles, which was quite slippy. It proved to be something of a ‘sting in the tail’ for many who are less used to running off-road (I’m sure Degsy will testify to that 😉 . The men’s race was won by Russell Bentley (unattached) in 2:35:05 and the women’s race was won by Joanne Nelson of Darwen Dashers in 3:03:53.”
Full results link here: http://tdleventservices.co.uk/race-results.php?event=2468
L&D XC – Arrowe Park
A big thank you to Phil Tomkinson for his report on the first L&D of the season, an excellent turn out of green vests and some close battles by all accounts. Over to Phil…
“Saturday afternoon saw the first race of the Liverpool & District Cross Country League at Arrowe Park, and there were 9 Helsby runners in attendance. The course was about 9.5k and basically consisted of 3 laps round 2 big fields, plus a few seconds spent running though some woods towards the end of each lap. Although not the most inspiring route, this layout did mean we ran past Joe and Mario several times so there was plenty of encouragement on offer. Resuming their duel from last weekend’s fell race, Ben Fletcher and Neil Finnegan were again separated by only a few seconds. This time Ben was first home for Helsby in 19th place, and overall we finished 6th out of 11 participating clubs. Two races into my debut cross country season my experience so far has been most notable for the surprising lack of mud – my shiny new spikes are still gleaming. Whether this will still be the case in a few months time remains highly doubtful.”
Helsby results were as follows:
19th Ben Fletcher 35:52
20th Neil Finnegan 35:56
45th Ian Rutherford 37:26
47th Chris Baynham-Hughes 37:42
62nd Phil Tomkinson 39:07
63rd Chris Murray 39.20
109th Davyd Michell 43:52
140th Rachel Arnold 48:21
154th Jackie Keasley 52:16
Parkrun
Please find a link to the consolidated parkrun stats from last Saturday. Excellent running from Tim Palmer saw him attain a big PB and 8th overall at Warrington and another PB for Adele Croxton at Widnes saw her 2nd lady overall! Well done both and well done to all those who took part in parkrun.
http://www.parkrun.com/results/consolidatedclub/?clubNum=1721
That’s all this week, anything missing please let me know. All future report should be sent to the usual email address – helsby-race-reports@outlook.com.
Keep on running…
Cheers
Col T
