Wesham Road Runners

The Northern Athletics 6 and 4-Stage Road relays returned to Blackpool’s Stanley Park on Saturday in a triumph of regional athletic competition on a perfect day for club team running. After the junior 3-stage relays the women set off at 1pm on their 4-stage 5.6km double circuit starting and finishing on the athletic track at the Sports Centre. Wesham had two teams entered, with the ladies “A” team finishing 53^rd in a cumulative time of 1:43:51. Sue Coulthurst set off with intention on the first leg coming in 53^rd in 24:17. Natalie Mulrooney was 51^st fastest on Stage 2 with 25:15, followed by Becky Ingram who was 41^st fastest in 25:24. Bev Wilding brough the team home retaining the overall 53^rd place with 28:54. The Wesham “B” were 61^st in 61^st in 1:58:03 for the with Clare Belfield running 32:49 to establish an opening position of 71^st. Sharon Cooper ran 28:57 on Stage 2 to come in 63^rd fastest, followed by Helen Bailey who clocked 27:52 for 57th fastest. Agnes Woods brought the team into 61^st place with 28:25 for 57th fastest on the anchor leg.

The Wesham Senior Men had four teams entered over the 6 stages of 5.6km over two laps with the “A” team finishing 54^th in 1:57:07. Tom Crabtree was off on the first stage with 19:56 for 82^nd place on one of the fastest stages of all. Tom Bamber was 81^st on Stage 2 with 20:20 followed by Mark Belfield who ran 18:49 for 37^th fastest. Dan Bolton was out on Stage 4 to clock 19:20 (50^th) with Jamie Houghton on Stage 5 to run 20:16 for 61^st fastest. Adam Wilding took on the glory stage to run 18:30 as 25^th fastest and securing the 54^th team position. The “B” team were 88^th in 2:08:52 with Chris Hastwell 102^nd in 21:27, Chris Haines 88^th with 20:49, Will Parkinson 98^th on 21:43, David Taylor running 19:58 for 65^th, Lee Barlow 22:46^th for 99^th, and Bradley Flatt 22:07 for 88^th. The “C” team saw Stuart Mulrooney (112^th in 23:00), James Remnant (111^th in 23:37), Steve Myerscough 109^th with 23:15), Carl Groome (109^th in 24:55), Damian Ings (103^rd in 23:48) and Ian Nichols Hogg (107^th with 25:51) finish 106^th in 2:24:30. The ”D” team were 111^th in 2:56:07, with Ryan Azzopardi 122^nd in 30:07, Mick Edge 115^th with 24:54, James Danson 119^th in 29:04, John Naylor 113^th in 25:35, Martin Bates 116^th with 33:49, and Paul Carter 111^th in 32:35.

The popular Keswick Half Marathon from Keswick around Derwentwater and through Swinside attracted 500 runners but there was only one registered runner from the Fylde and club members were in a minority, although the weather was pretty inclement, even though the area can be in a micro-climate.

Wesham had three runners in the City of Preston 10k on Sunday, Lee Nixon finished 24^th in 39:58 for 6^th M40. Ian Nichols Hogg was 67^th in 45:20, and Lee Mangan was 291^st with 55:40 for 26^th M45.

Dan Bolton ran the Warrington Festival 10k, finishing 10^th in 36:08 with a good run. There were seven runners under the 33 minute mark with the winning time a classy 29:31 from Omar Ahmed.

There were 21 Wesham members running a 5km parkrun at 9am on Saturday morning at ten venues. Tracey Hulme was out at the South Manchester parkrun in Platt Fields to run 25:08 for a W60 age graded performance of 77.19%. In the Preston parkrun in Avenham Park Nigel Shepherd had his best run of the year with 20:59 to record an M65 age grade of 80.70%. Vicky Gore was 9^th fastest woman in 25:27 for a W45 graded 64.31% with Andy Moore running 27:39 for an M60 59.01%. Paul Carter warmed up for the road relays with 32:30 for M50 46.87%. Martin Bates was in Worsley Woods in Manchester to run 27:51 for M65 61.34% and Emma Brook was at home in Chester-Le-Street for the Riverside parkrun where she ran 27:21 for W40 56.25%. On the edge of the White Peak in Glossop Emma Wright clocked 31:21 for W45 51.14% and there were nine Wesham runners in the Lytham Hall parkrun where Steve Myerscough ran the 4^th fastest time of the morning with 20:18 for M50 72.66%. Carl Groome was 11^th in 21:17 with an M55 graded 72.20%. Jonathan Lawson ran 24:54 for M55 62.25% with Elliot Costello on 26:39 for an age graded 48.66%. Jo McCaffery recorded 30:37 for W45 52.37%; Tracy Clare ran 35:27 for 41.94%; Martin Allison came in with 36:51 for M40 37.31%; Mary Lois Cortes returned 40:23 for W35 37.47%; and Sue Rigby ran 55:51 for a W50 grade of 30.38%. On Fleetwood Promenade there were two Wesham M65s, George Kennedy ran 24:36 for 69.44% and Alex Rowe walked 37:50 for 45.15%. At the Irchester Country parkrun in Wellingborough Mike and Helen Eyre ran 24:41 and 31:00 for M60 66.10% and W60 61.72%. Steven Gore was in Birmingham for the Edgbaston Reservoir run where he came in 6^th fastest in 19:09 for M40 72.93%. At the Llanishen Park run in Cardiff Brian Weatherington ran 27:16 for M40 51.59% and Janine Weatherington recorded 34:40 for W40 45.05%.