Sport in the Port
Fresh from her victory last weekend in the 10K tunnel run, Kirsty Longley chose the ‘Sport in the Port’ races at Ellesmere Port to again test her stamina. She was not disappointed and was first lady home in 37.00 mins.Club colleague, Lisa Gawthorne, chose to run the 5K at the same venue and not only won the ladies race, but was 6th home overall. Lisa continues to grow in confidence and her regular training schedule is beginning to pay dividends.

England Athletics U23 Championships
Toby Loveridge was the sole club representative at the EA championships at Bedford over the weekend. After successfully negotiating the heats of the U23 Men’s 1500m on Saturday he then set a new PB time of 3:52.61 in finishing 8th in the final on Sunday.

Wally Bridson (Sec)
Liverpool Pembroke & Sefton

Lisa Gawthorne & Kirsty Longley winner of the 5 & 10k at Sport at the Port

At Trafford LPS are clearly in trouble and facing possible relegation from Division 2W. The competition is fiercer this year and requires full support from all sections of the club. There were some excellent individual victories besides Kirsty’s. Danny Higham sparkled with a 200m in 22.5 and Nathan Hilton continued his fine run of 400m results with 48.2. These together with Jesse Roberts and Wayne Ashall combined for an easy 4 x 400m relay win. Billy Williams too was in excellent high jump mode clearing 1.85m. Among the women Kate Doran took her high jump with 1.50m.  The list of courageous performances was endless but there were sadly significant gaps and the club ran out fifth out of six teams, a slight improvement on the previous match but leaving a mountain to climb if they are to survive. Given the club`s potential this is not out of the question but the next encounter, a home match at Litherland, will require super-human endeavors. Results

The county schools` matches were also held over the weekend. At the Merseyside’s Joe Milton was again unstoppable with a Junior Boy 300m win in 36.9, a time that will be noted all over the UK. Rosie Johnson found herself in a highly competitive Intermediate 1500m but collected the title with 4.35.4. The high jumpers were again in form, Amelia McLauglin (Intermediate) winning with 1.66m and Owen Southern(Yr 6/7) on 1.40m. Amelia also experienced gold medal success at the Shot (8.44m).
In the Greater Manchester schools championships held at Stretford, Rob Parkinson was the sole LPS athlete, but he gained a bronze medal finishing 3rd in the SB 800 race in a new PB time of 2.01.5
At Wigan, 9 athletes competed in the Lancashire School championships. Morgan Greaves-Thomas JB 100m (11.4) and Lucy Staunton-Turner JG Javelin (30.35m, both achieved the qualifying standards for the English schools in July. In addition, Ed Latimer won gold in the JB 300m and Ben Singleton bronze in the IB 3K (9:44.6)

Charles Gains

Predictably Amelia McLaughlin(U17) took the High Jump with 1.68m and Billy Williams(Sen) with 1.85m but a new name has joined the Edge Hill High Jump stable. Under 13 Owen Southern leapt a majestic 1.38m.  Lauren Lewis (U13) continues to excite with wins at 100m(13.6) and Long Jump(4.24m). With a constellation of other high quality performances the efforts of super-Vet Dave Brown could easily be overlooked but age has not dimmed his enthusiasm as he churned out great Shot (10.16m), Discus(25.83m) and Javelin(34.7m) results. The club is well on course for league promotion.

Kirsty Longley 10k winner and Lisa Gawthrone 5k winner at Port Sunlight

Carrying the banner for senior endurance running Kirsty Longley and Lisa Gawthorne doubled up at the weekend at Christleton and Port Sunlight. At the first venue they both recorded 5K personal bests of 17.17 and 19.14 respectively. Kirsty`s result was predictable but Lisa`s a remarkable improvement. They both went to Port Sunlight and excelled once more. Kirsty collected the first Senior Lady at 10K with 37.07 and Lisa the first Senior Lady at 5K with 19.39. They are a fine advertisement for LPS.

In the International meeting at Loughborough Danny Higham ran an excellent 48.85 in a Guest race.

Charles Gains

Charles Gains

Mike Rimmer

Kirsty Longley, Matt Thompson, Michael Rimmer, John Dobie and Lauren Lewis.

It’s been a long time since we had such a flourish of additions to “our best”.

Details at www.pembrokian.co.uk

Dave Brown – Club Statistician

The Manx hosts were great and Charlotte Christian and family are to be warmly thanked for a post-match party. Thanks should be recorded to Dave Brown for his fortitude in organising the trip and to the coaches, officials and parents who provided such encouragement. Everyone was a star.

The club will have to dig a a lot deeper in the coming matches as relegation is now a real prospect. Results

Maxine Thompson in action at Douglas May 2013	Rob Parkinson in action at Douglas May 2013
All smiles as 4 happy LPS girls take a break from competition	Neil McLaughlin and Dave Brown on the run from the fashion police
LPS Team at Douglas IOM May 2013

Halewood 5k

Over at Halewood the monthly 5k again attracted another quality field with the eye catching performance coming from Lisa Gawthorne making her first appearance in this race was second female in 19.35. Robbie Wood was next home in 19.52 with John Dobie (v/65) running a new course best of 21.01. The Barnsley sisters regulars at this event battled it out to both record pb with Alexandra 21.49 just beating Megan who ran 21.52. Results

British Universities Champs and Kirsty again!

A handful of LPS members went to Bedford for the British Universities and Colleges Championships. Danny Higham progressed the furthest with a 49.39 400m heat and 49.09 semi-final. Jesse Roberts was 5th in his 200m heat in 23.48 and Toby Loveridge ran a sharp 15.11.51 5000m to qualify for the final of that event but failed to finish. Emma Givens was delighted with a 15.34 100m hurdles which takes her to 13th in the UK rankings. Danny, Jesse and Emma were Edge Hill University while Toby was St Mary`s University College, London.

Kirsty Longley returned from a holiday in Dubai too late to make the club trip to the Isle of Man but in time for a day out in Sefton Park with her family. As usual though she could not resist the lure of  the new Liverpool Spring10K sponsored by the Mossley Hill Running Club. She was rewarded with a comfortable first lady in 37.42 and 13th overall.

Charles Gains

Charles Gains

For those on the group ticket for the ferry please be at the IoM Steam Packet ferry terminal (just opposite the North face of the Liver Building) NO LATER THAN 10:30 am Saturday 4th May. We will be returning on the 15:00 ferry on Monday 6th May expected to dock in Liverpool approx 17:45.

Mr Neil McLoughlin has a list of those on the group ticket and the booking reference number.

The followig people are listed on the group ticket :

Neil McLoughlin
Louise Jennings
Amelia McLoughlin
Verity Jennings
Rob Parkinson
Malcolm Parkinson
Maxine Thompson
Celina Hernandez
Dave Street
Mark Leicester
Lucy Wroblewski
Jessica Birtles
Billy Williams
Mike Bride
Nathan Hilton

Due to late withdrawls we have two ‘spare’ places – if anybody would like to join the party please let me know and I’ll change the names on the list (but you’ll have to sort your own accommodation).

Charles Gains & Paula Wilson will be on the same ferry but have booked their own tickets.

Matt Thompson, Carol Bates, Rose Hutchinson, Rachel Hutchinson, Charlotte Christian, Karen Brown and myself are making our own way to the match on different ferries/flights.

I’ll be at the terminal to meet you off the ferry on Saturday.

Can you please pass to me any receipts (or copies of receipts) for your accommodation or travel. These will be used to claim some refund from the Manx Tourist Board to cover the cost of the group ticket and to make a contribution to those who paid for their own crossing.

I believe there will be a BBQ hosted by Manx Harriers on the Saturday evening and Mrs Christian is hosting another BBQ on the Sunday for LP&S. Bad taste dress isn’t obligatory for these events, but isn’t banned either !

Despite being a “league match” I’d like everyone to enjoy the experience. No-one should feel pressured to do any events they don’t want to and everybody should have the opportunity to do their favoured events.

Regards

Dave B

At Under 15 another exciting sprint prospect is emerging in the shape of Ella Barton with first in the 100m(13.10) and third in the 200m(27.00), times that again propel her skywards on the national scene. Evelyn Smalley’s determination took her to an encouraging Long Jump win of 4.41m while emerging useful middle-distancers Morag Molyneux(5.10.80) and Charlotte Mawdsley(5.17.70) were 4th and 5th at 1500m. Jack Crook(4.49.60) is also beginning to look positive at 1500m. Jenny Wroblewski will be pleased with a 4th place in the Discus(13.68m).

As usual at Under 17 Amelia McLaughlin easily won the High Jump(1.65m) but it was encouraging to see Chloe Wood(1.35m) taking second. Grace Whitfield had a commendable double second placing in the Long Jump(4.15m) and Triple Jump(8.64m). Corey Cooper took the Hammer with 24.3m and Danny Wright was 4th in the 1500m(4.36.30).

At Senior level Nathan Hilton, given the conditions, ran a remarkable 48.60m for 400m as a postcript to a personal best at Sheffield the previous week of 48.28. Danny Higham was also on song with 3rd behind Nathan in 50.40 following his 49.20 at Steel City. High Jumpers Billy Williams(1.85m) and Dave McComb(1.75m) took second and third and Michael Wilson a fourth in the 1500m in 4.30.10. The afternoon closed with a magnificent front running performance from James Loftus in the 3000m who took a chunk off his personal best with 9.23.10. Ben Singleton was third in 9.56.8. Overall in the second division of the league the males ran out second and the females first on points. Promotion beckons after even one match.

The Belle Vue House 10K run at the club`s headquarters at Edge Hill University saw Ian Roberts win in 34.33 from the remarkable Amanda Crook(35.09) of Southport who was too good for the rest of the men. Greg Callaghan was 13th(37.57) and Stuart Haw 26th(40.40). An overjoyed Lisa Gawthorne was 34th(41.17) in a personal best, collecting third Female prize in the process. Vicky Jones was 148th(50.32).

Charles Gains

Rosie Johnson`s time of 16.56 for 3 miles in the U15 Mini-Marathon raises her to third spot in the club all-time rankings.

Sammy`s marathon story

After managing to do 3:04 in London two years ago, which was good enough to get a “good for age” place I decided that I would give it another go in 2013!

Sammy Rashid

2012 wasn’t a great year athletically. I got back to some level of fitness after illness for a number of months and managed a 1:16 half in Paris in March that year, but then 2 weeks later a niggling achilles got significantly worse at the UK Masters indoor champs and this meant I was out injured until the end of November 2012.

December was a bit of a struggle, from jogs and harder runs to track sessions and a couple of local Xcountry races. Things got a little better in the last week of December so I decided to formulate a 16 week marathon program starting on 31 Dec!

The plan was to try and race myself into some sort of shape, and try and balance doing enough hard road miles to be able to cope with the marathon with not doing too many so as to get injured.

All the Cross Country races I attempted did not really go that well. I did a half marathon in Preston in January which went ok for 6 miles and then I slumped back down the field and ended up doing a 1:19.

In February I upped the mileage and did all the training I wanted to and despite a poor national Xcountry I had an encouraging 20 mile race in the first weekend of March and did 2.08. This was a turning point as I had no idea that I could run that fast for that distance.

I did another 20 miler in Hull 2 weeks later and managed a 2:05, though I did struggle towards the end because I went off far too fast. However, this was the point that I decided a 2.45 marathon was a possibility (this gets you a “championship” start for the next 2 years in London).

For the last month or so the training went to plan, so when I headed to London on Friday it was the first time ever that I had a completely uninterrupted marathon build up with no illness or injury. My plan was to try and run an even paced 2.45…so 6 min 17 secs per mile.

London is the best event I have ever done on terms of crowd, atmosphere and, in my opinion, is very well organised. If you are ever going to do a marathon, do it there! So on Sun morning it felt like Christmas Day when I was 7 years old…I could hardly sleep! A 6am start to get some food and then to travel from my friends’ house. Got there at about 8.30, so had an hour and a half to take it all in and just couldn’t wait to get going!

The first mile is always a bit of a lottery, I ended up doing about 6.06 and feeling very easy, I slowed down a bit, but then went too slow, then I went too fast again, it carried on like this until 10 miles. By this time I was on schedule and feeling relatively ok. The miles between 10 and 13 were the place where I messed up my plan by going too fast. I just found it hard to run at even pace. I tried to stay with people, but either they were going too fast or too slow!!

At 13 I was about 40 seconds too fast and knew I was storing up trouble! By 18 I was just about on schedule but was starting to struggle, I knew then the game was up and I knew 2.45 was not going to happen!! I found the next 6 miles a real problem.

The things that kept me going were the crowd in general, the people who knew me shouting encouragement, the fact people were sponsoring me and that people were watching my progress on-line.

By the time I got to 24 I knew I was going to finish, and even though I was going slower than most of the other parts of the race I felt a bit better. When I saw the finish clock I could see I would be close to sub 2.47, and just got in in 2.46.56. I was pretty angry with myself when I crossed the line, i basically thought I’d blew my best ever chance ofa sub 2.45!! I did the first half 3 mins quicker than the 2nd half.

However, I am now less angry and more happy. I found out I was 390th overall and 37th in the V45 category! I’ve had many many kind “well done” messages and because of doing the race I’ve heard from a lot of people I haven’t contacted for a very long time!

Will give it another go in 2 years time, assuming the body is still up to the job, I’ll be in the next age category then too!

Sammy Rashid