Runners-Up for Port Runners

On Tuesday 27 th September the 4 th and final race in the Wirral Multi Terrain League took place at Arrow Park with overall positions still to be contested.

An excellent team effort from the EPRC ladies saw Nicky Bird as the clear winner on the night in 29 minutes and 2 seconds followed by Alison Macdonald in 5 th position in 31.44 and finished off by a great run from Alison Hughes finishing 13 th out of 48 ladies on the night to steer the woman's team to an excellent 2 nd team on the night.

On the men's race Steve Crowe was the first runner home for the club in 7 th position in 25.32 and was followed by Denis Duret who finished in 17 th position in 26.31.

Mike Burns was the third runner home for EPRC in 26 th position (27.56) and was followed by an inform Ian Robinson 65 th (29.42). Mark Dodd was to follow next after completing the two lap course in 29.53 (72 nd) with Gary Richards just seconds behind in 30.02 (74 th). Les Fleetwood 102 nd (32.18) and Eric Corker 126 th (35.44) were the final EPRC runners to finish out of a field of 136.

In the overall series their was trophies won for three Ellesmere Port runners, Alison Macdonald (Over 30 Cat), Steve Crowe (Over 30 Cat) and Ian Cooper (Over 40 Cat) with all runners finishing as Runners Up in their respective age categories.

Sunday 2 nd October saw six Ellesmere Port runners take up the challenge of the Sandstone Trail Races.

Race A was contested over a distance of 16.8 miles across country from Duckington to Delemere Forest.

Paul Robertson produced a great race, once again off little training to finish the race in 13 th position out of 110 runners in an excellent time of 2.05.53.

Mike Burns was the next runner to follow and also produced an excellent time of 2.16.16 moving up from 33 rd position at Beeston (7 miles) to 25 th place at the finish.

Alan Durston was the next runner to complete the race after posting a similar time to last year of 2.36.25 for 71 st position. Andrew Hunt was the final EPRC finisher of the A race in 2.45.36 for 89 th position.

In the B Race that was contested over 9.5 miles and started at Beeston Castle, Alison Macdonald was the first EPRC runner home in 1.23.17 (36 th) followed by another good run from Alison Hughes who finished in 1.27.39 to take 55 th place out of 162 runners.

On the same day over in Wales, The Flintshire 10K saw Steve Crowe earn a share of the prize money after finishing 6 th in a time of 34.28.

Three Races last Sunday 9 th October saw six Ellesmere Port runners in action.

Starting with the Liverpool 10K, A time of 43.29 saw Alison Macdonald finish 17 th Lady overall out of 1316 and an outstanding 2 nd on the Lady Vet 35 category out of 196.

Mike Burns was the 100 th finisher of the race out of a total field of 3413 in an impressive time of 38.55.

The Congleton Half Marathon saw two Ellesmere Port runners chasing quick times.

First runner home for the club was Mark Dodd who ran a very sensible first half of the race and felt a lot stronger in the last 6.5 miles than his last half marathon achieving a negative split and finishing in 74 th place out of 436 runners in a personal best time of 1.30.08 averaging 6.52 per mile.

Amanda Penfold was to complete the half marathon in a handy time of 1.54.36 to secure 320 th place and 10 th in the Lady Vet 35 category.

The final race of the day saw two runners head down to Cardiff to compete in its annual Marathon.

Dave Winder was the first runner home for the club in 3 hours 15 minutes but a cruel injury at 20 miles meant that Dave had to slow down for the last six miles when a sub 3 hour finish beckoned.

Steve Blaylock called on his past experience of Marathons to post an excellent time of 3 hours 29 minutes after not specifically training for the distance, an all too common occurrence for running addicts.