23rd March – Alex’s Newspaper Report

The Wesham men’s team at the Trotters Five Trail race last week

It was a busy week for athletics with a lot of fixtures on at the weekend, and Wesham members were out and about competing and training.

Adam Wilding finished 2nd in the fast and furious Garstang Gallop 7 mile race from the market square in town through Catterall and out around a loop of country lanes in a time of 39:42. Jamie Houghton finished 4th in 42:51 having started out with Adam for a while. Carl Groome was 10th and fist M55 in 46:59 with Ian Nicholls Hogg to take the men’s team prizes.  Bev Wilding came in 2nd W60 with 1:01:30 for 66th place overall. Paul Carter finished 91st in 1:08:32 and 6th M50.

Martin Bates ran the Run Wigan Festival Half Marathon on Sunday to clock 1:54:37 for 3rd M65 and 430th overall in this popular road race.

Jonny Allsop ran the in 2:26:42 (2:23:58 chip time) 3966th in a very large field in the Liverpool Half Marathon. Anne Berry was in the Leighton Hall and AONB Trail race to finish 5th W60 in 3:03:58, in 137th place overall and 38th woman. Jo McCaffery finished 120th and 18th W40, 37th woman in 2:56:11 with Tanya Shaw 19th W40 and 38th woman also in 2:56:11 for 121st overall.

There were 22 Wesham members running a parkrun on Saturday morning, as usual spread far and wide across 11 of the UK’s 769 event venues. The largest gathering of members was at their local run in Lytham Hall, where Chris Haines ran the fourth fastest time of the morning with a time of 20:14 for an M35 age graded performance percentage of 66.97%. Carl Groome was 5th fastest in 20:20 for an M55 75.57% with Mark Holton seventh in 20:46 with M45 68.30%. Ian Nichols Hogg ran 24:50 for an age graded 52.35% and Andy Moore clocked 28:55 with an M60 performance of 56.43%. Sue Rigby saw in 38:47 for W50 43.23% with Michelle Pitt on 42:03 and W40 37.14%, Philip Leaver walked 47:46 for M70 36.92%. Nearby Blackpool parkrun in Stanley Park and Finlay McCalman ran 27:07 for M55 58.64% and Martin Allison was at 40:38 with an M40 graded 33.59%. There were four Wesham members at the Preston run in Avenham Park where Steve Myerscough clocked 20:08 for an M50 graded 73.26%. Nigel Shepherd returned 22:09 for an M65 75.70% with Vicky Gore 8th woman in a time of 25:23 for W45 64.48% as she prepares for her London Marathon in a few weeks on good form. Paul Carter clocked 32:56 for M50 46.26%. Along Fleetwood Promenade supervet Alan Hudson ran 25:28 for an M70 73.17% with Dave Young on 32:54 for M75 58.61%. Martin Bates was at Haigh Hall in Wigan for the Woodland parkrun to score a time of 25:47 for M65 66.26%.  In Manchester’s Longford Park for the Stretford event Tracey Hulme  recorded 25:52 for W60 75.00%. Alongside Salford University in Peel Park Dan Bolton was 3rd fastest in 17:29 for an age graded 73.78% and down in Birmingham in Aston Hall Steven Gore was 2nd fastest in his debut there as a First Timer to clock 19:01 for M40 72.83%. Ryan Azzopardi ran the iconic Bushy parkrun in Teddington where it all began 20 years ago to run 24:08 for an M40 graded 58.29%. Emma Brook ran the Riverside parkrun in Chester-Le-Street in 28:07 for W40 54.71%