Dave Neilands reports . . . .

Gary Heyworth of Garstang Running Club who is training for his first marathon, at Nottingham in two weeks time, set another personal best in his quest to be finely tuned for the 26 mile race. Finishing 84th of the 248 finishers at the Fleetwood Half Marathon in a time of 1 hour 35.04 minutes he beat his previous pb by 5 minutes. Almost 5 minutes behind him in 108th place was Tim Warner in 1.39.23 with Malcolm Vinnicombe 113th in 1.40.37.Gary had previously finished 35th of the 121 finishers at the Cuerden Valley Trail 10K. The Scotland based Roberts – Richard paid a flying visit to the North West for the Blackburn Fighting Cancer 5k, finishing 13th in a field of 65 in 20.28 minutes. Richard Jones and Craig Menzies dropped into Cumbria for the Ulverston 10K with Richard yet again dipping below 40 minutes in 39.15 for 38th place and Craig 39.24 for 41st place in a field of 227 runners.

The Cockerham Triathlon involving a 350 metre swim, 15K bike section and ending with a 5k run was an altogether different experience. Richard Jones finished 13th overall in 1 hour 12.42 minutes, comparing very favourably with the winners time of one hour and six seconds. Dave Old finished 51st in 1.21.09 and Bill Hewitt, yes that Bill Hewitt, 102nd in 1.37.10. The last of the 119 competitors finished in 2 hours 30 minutes after taking 68 minutes to complete the swim section which on average took other competitors about 9 minutes – there is no truth in the rumour they were having there first swimming lesson, rather they showed massive determination in an event that did not come naturally to them.

Betty Roberts travelled to Davos in Switzerland for an Alpine Marathon, starting at an altitude of 1540 metres and with no time to acclimatise to the rarefied atmosphere AND with lung sapping height gain of 1890 metres she finished 163rd in a magnificent time of 6 hours 47 minutes. By comparison long suffering husband Phil did the easier 50 mile race with 2400 metres of ascent through some of the world’s highest and scenic passes. Struggling to match Betty’s performance he finished a modest 231st in an international field of 839 runners in 9 hours 10 minutes some 3 hours behind the winner. As Phil obviously needs to improve they are planning a return trip next year and challenge fellow club members to join them!!

1/9/08

Dave Neilands

 

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