On Sunday 9th December, Tattenhall were hosts of the 3rd round of 2007/08 borders league. The women’s team put in their best performance of the season so far. The team, comprising of Alison Hughes 42:32, Alison McDonald 45:47, and Madeline Bird 47:42, scored the best total in the second division and have significantly closed the gap on the two front-runners. With four, more races to go and if this sort of form can be maintained then promotion is a serious prospect.
The men’s team was unfortunately missing several key members and suffered a slight dip in form. However they still managed to hold on to 4th place in division 1, but the gap has significantly closed and the team will need to be wary of any more slip-ups. On a more up beat note it was great to see Chris Marshall (42:23) and Mark Dodd (43:25), running again and well on the road to recovery after long term injuries. Ian Cooper (34:46) continued to show his great form securing 9th overall and 2nd in V45 age group, and Paul Robertson (39:23) continues move up the field as his recovery continues. The other members of the team were Denis Duret 38:28, Michael Burns 39:04, Legg, Danny 40:49, and Matthew Whitfield 40:59, Dave Roberts 44:16, John Cole 45:29. The winner of the men’s race was Gwyn Owen from Eryri harriers (32:39) with the ladies event being won by Jay Jennions (39:16) from Dee striders.
In the individual tables, Steven Crowe remains in 2nd in the senior men, as is Ian Cooper in the V45, Madeline Bird is in 3rd place in LV50, and Matthew Whitfield & Dave Nalder are just outside the top 3 in 4th & 5th respectively. With both teams almost back to full strength, the second half of the season looks a very exciting prospect indeed.
Who’s the Santa?
On Sunday 2nd December, Alison MacDonald, Brian Griffiths, Jon Hawker & Mike Burns discarded their usual tangerine running shirts for a more festive, red & white, and made the trip to Liverpool (or should that be Lap Land) for the annual running of the 10k Santa Dash. With a bumper turnout, despite the heavy rain, hopes were high of beating the current world record held by Liverpool of 3,921. This year however, with several other cities participating including Las Vegas, competition was going to be stiff.
With this race, it was more about the taking part than times and when the last soggy Santa crossed the line, almost 6000 had been counted. A new world record was set, beating their previous best by approximately 2000. This victory however was to be short lived, later that day Las Vegas made its attempt and clocked a grand total of 7,123 smiling red suited Santa’s, the record, for the time being is theirs. With national as well as regional honor now at stake, all four have declared they will return and bring more runners with them to regain the title and you never know, maybe, just maybe, even the big fella himself might turn up to help the cause.
