The Chester Spring 5 mile road race was held on the evening of Tuesday 5 th April. The race that starts and finishes at Cheshire Sports college, Upton was won by Liverpool Pembroke and Sefton ace James Boardman in 24.26. Deeside AAC runner Steven Henshaw was second in 25.08 with Gavin Tomlinson of Vale Royal third in 26.12.
Ellesmere Port RC had 16 runners present at the race out of a total number of 309 runners who participated on the night.
First runner back for the club was Steve Crowe who completed the race in 28.52 for 27 th position after having to look constantly over his shoulder for the last half mile with three club mates immediately behind and gaining fast.
Of the chasing pack Tony Hyland and Simon Jeffs battled it out for the next position with Tony just nicking it to finish 28 th in 28.56 from Simon who finished a second back in a personal best 28.57 for 29 th .
Nicky Bird who pushed the men all the way and was dictating the pace up to 3 miles was next home finishing two seconds behind Simon in a personal best time of 28.59 for 30 th position and second lady behind Liverpool Harriers Jenny Clague whose winning time was 27.18.
Matt Whitfield was the next runner home and produced a marvellous time of 30.35 for 60 th place knocking over a minute of his time from last years race. Danny Legg was next home after negotiating the course in 31.27 (74 th ) and was followed by Pete Jones 32.12 (90 th ), Mike Burns 32.14 (91 st ) and John Jennings 32.31 (98 th ).
Steve Blaylock was the next runner home after tackling the course in 33.03 (116 th ) and was followed by Les Fleetwood 34.01 (134 th ). Alan Durston produced an almost identical time from last years race by finishing in 34.14 for 142 nd position.
Alison Macdonald was the next runner home for the club after competing the 5 miles in 35.41 for 170 th position. Andrew Hunt was next home in 39.49 (237 th ) and was followed by Tracy Lewis-Jones who ran within 30 seconds of her personal best finishing in 39.50 for 238 th position.
The final Ellesmere Port runner home was Alison Hughes who was running her first race for the club and produced an excellent time of 40.31 averaging just over 8 minutes a mile to finish 245 th .
In other races Eric Corker completed the 3 Bridges 10K race in Lancashire last Sunday and produced a satisfactory time of 48.03 to finish 186 th out of 334 runners.
Finally good look to all EPRC and other local runners participating in this weekends London Marathon, full report next week.
