The week started with Kirsty Longley smashing the all time V45 womens’ Park Run record. A tremendous achievement as her time of 16:52 at Widnes was 5 seconds faster than the previous record which had stood since 2020.
On Sunday we had a number of athletes taking part in the Warrington Running Festival. Al Grant, fresh from his England call up finished a strong 6th place in 36:44 and birthday boy (15) Hayden, fresh from his hair cut and making his 10km debut finished a fantastic 16th out of 611 runners, in 40:58.
At the same event, we also had Neil Roberts making his half marathon debut in the V55 category. Neil was accompanied/chaperoned (delete as appropriate) by Darren Kain running in the V50 category, both of whom pulled great times out of their New Balance Trackster and Dunlop Green Flash shoes. Darren completed the course in 1:47.04 (20th in his category and 212th overall), a really good performance given he had a serious hip operation less than 2 years ago, whilst debutant Neil must be delighted with 1:47.15 (15th in category and 216th overall), which is a super result as he has never ran the distance before, even in training – it must have been the back to front white cap that did it! It was nice to see great team spirit as they appear to be holding each other up towards the end of the race.
On the same day the club entered 4 teams (1 U17 women and 3 Senior Men) into the Northern Road Relays at Sports City.
Erin Frost for the U17 women, finished 19th fastest overall on the day as she and her team mates, Iris Davidson and Anna Yates came home 14th overall.
We entered strong teams in the Senior Men’s event with a target of a top 25 finish to ensure qualification for the National Road Relay Championships on 8 October. The event was incredibly competitive but our “A” team of Luke Edwards, Se Loughlin, Adam Jones, Ross Harrison, Chris Maher and Tony O’Brien finished in a strong 18th place to ensure qualification. All of these athletes put in performances that would win most local individual events, so it gives you an idea of the step up in quality.
Huge credit to team captain, Mark Wynne, who yet again put three teams together, all of who performed credibly. In particular, Tom Fair 22:16 and Joe Niven 21:20 helped ensure that the “B” team finished well in 45th position of the 103 teams.
We are looking forward to the Nationals next Saturday.
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