Two Ellesmere Port Runners ventured along the M6 to Congleton for their annual running of the popular "Sting In The Tail" Half Marathon, so named because of the "killer" hill at 12.5 mile.
Coming home first for the club and only just back from a lengthy injury break was Paul Jackson, one of the clubs newer members. Running a superb race, Paul ran hard and deserved his superb 1:35:28 for 131st position.
Jon Hawker, now running his 9th Half Marathon of the year and his forth in as many weeks was close to breaking 1:40 but just missed out on this testing course. Posting 1:40:39fro 178th overall, Jon now has to be very happy with his current form and is now looking forward to the Amsterdam Half Marathon on the 19th October.
The race was won by Wilmslow's Malcolm Fowler in 1:14:19 with the ladies race being won by Clare Thompson from Congleton Runners in 1:25:04
Jon Hawker In Congleton Half
Sandstone Trail
Once again it was time for 17.1 miles of mud/corn fields, streams, hills and manure, in the Sandstone Trail, with Ellesmere Port having top representatives in both the "A" Race (the full 17.1 mile from Duckington to Delamere Forest) and the "B" Race (10 mile from Beeston Castle to Delamere). Having had 12 hours of rain both coure were going to be tough and wet and so this was proved.
Running the "A" Race and coming home first for the club was the inform Chris Marshall. Having run this race on numerous occasions, Chris is a "veteran" of the course and put this knowledge to full use, posting 2:10:02 for a brilliant 12th position.
Running strong, was next finisher Mike Burns, coming home in 25th place in 2:20:24.
Some distance behind Mike was the faltering John Cole and Mark Dodd. Having past each other on numerous occasions during the race, John battled the harder and finished ahead of Mark in 58th place in 2:36:46 with Mark one place behind him in 59th and 2:37:06.
Just behind both John and Mark was Alison MacDonald running strongly to complete this tough course is an excellent 2:41:11.
Running in the shorter "B" Race was Alison Hughes who has the performance of the day done and dusted. Coming 22nd overall out of 130 runners, Alison won the senior ladies race in a superb 1:27:13.
Winning the Men's "A" Race was Tom Annable in 1:59:35 with the ladies title being won by Olivia Renshaw in 2:12:42.
The Men's "B" Race was won by George Thompson in 1:09:57 with Ellesmere Ports own Alison Hughes taking the ladies title.
Great North Run
Inform John McAndrew ventured north to take part in officially the largest half marathon field ever assembled at 52,000+ in the Great North Run. In perfect weather conditions, John who's recent form is showing staggering improvement, ran a scintillating race to finish in 1:25:25 knocking over 15 minutes of his previous best.
Asics Liverpool 10k
Ellesmere Ports sole representative in the Liverpool 10k was Brian Griffiths. Once again Brian ran a strong race coming 159th in 43:42 out of 1300+ people.
