There Was a Good Race to Be Had in the Blackburn Winter Warmer 10K from Witton Park In

Steve Myerscough new personal best in Preston parkrun

Despite some gloomy misty weather it was good conditions for running last week and there were some local races to temp Wesham runners out as there is a strong hint of spring in the air.

There was a good race to be had in the Blackburn Winter Warmer 10k from Witton Park in misty conditions around the park and the n ascending the awesome climb up Bunser Lane before looping over Billinge Hill and down though Pleasington. Nicola Unsworth and George Kennedy were in training for the London Marathon in April both clocking 46:33 for 122nd and 123rd places overall. Nicola was 6th woman and 4th W40 and George was 6th M55. George is running for Brian House Children’s Hospice in support of Nicola’s son and Nicola has prospects of running inside 3 hours 30 minutes in the marathon. Kath Hoyer freshly returned from winter holiday finished 16th woman and 3rd W50 in a top quality ladies race, 169th overall in 48:53. Dave Waywell was 3rd M70 in a competitive men’s race coming in 227th overall in 52:18. There were 193 women running and 477 runners overall, a fine turnout for a challenging course.

A few Wesham runners ventured to Southport for a clutch of personal best performances in the Mad Dog 10k on a good day for running. Stuart Topping did himself proud with a big improvement to 41:23 finishing 115th with a gun time of 41:08. Helen Lawrenson was 16th woman and 2nd W45 in 43:18, chip time 43:03 in 175th place overall. Clive Berry was 931st with 55:25 coming in 243rd M40 with his chip time 54:19. Sally Deacon had a good run with a new best of 55:10 chip time and 55:46 gun time finishing 237th woman and 50th W45, 953rd overall in this popular and well promoted race. Julie Rooney ran 1:03:19 for 641st position in the women’s positions with 1:05:28 for 1583rd place in the main results.

There was another good showing of Wesham runners at the presto parkrun on Saturday morning. Karl Lee ran very close to his personal best with 17:30 for 73.81% age graded performance. Steve Myerscough clocked 18:36 for M40 73.92%; a new personal best performance for him. Conditions were excellent for running ad David Taylor also scored a new best in 18:55 for 68.19%. Jason Blagden also had a best performance with 20:28 for M40 67.69%, and Eliot Costello a best of 21:08 with 61.04%. Gemma Owen ran 22:55 for 65.02%; Phil Leaver with 23:57 for M60 67.57%; and Diane Blagden 25:46 for W45 63.52%. Alex Rowe had a go at Pennington Flash on is way down to Birmingham with 18:56 for M55 82.57%.