Dave Neilands reports . . . .

Dave Barraclough, Dave Heslop and Pete Gelderd of Garstang Running Club would contend that the “undulations” of the Hawkshead 15K Trail race were as “tough as it gets” however Richard Roberts no doubt would not agree.  The Dave’s finished 104th and 106th respectively and Pete 367th of the 512 competitors however that was just one race.  For the fifth time Richard ventured to Durness in the far north of Scotland for the Cape Wrath Challenge, a series of races over six days culminating in a full marathon.  In the first event the half marathon Richard finished 5th in 1 hour 25.48 minutes, in the “Long Hill Race” he finished 4th in 33.29 minutes and in the “Culture” run he finished 5th in 56.38 minutes.  Now Richard is nobody’s fool which he proved by teaming up with another competitor to “do” the marathon as a relay – after fabulous weather for the earlier runs, ferocious weather buffeted the athletes which meant that those doing the relay marathon had the wind mostly behind them whilst those individuals running the full marathon were heads down into the gale for the best part of 11 miles!   It does however beg the question, if Richard had the wind mostly behind him for his half of the marathon why did he not run quicker than 1 hour 24.29 minutes?  Perhaps he will be faster next year – apparently the 2008 accommodation is already booked.

More mundanely Richard Jones and Pete Gelderd took part in the virtually flat Chorley 10 mile road race where in a field of 280 Richard finished 141st in 1 hour 12.28 minutes (2 marathons in four weeks “still in his legs”?) and Pete 248th in 1 hour 26.43 minutes (absolutely no excuse for his performance except that he does not get the quality coaching nowadays that he used to get).

(27/5/07)

 

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