Last Tuesday evening, Thurstaston once again played host to the ever popular multi terrain challenge consisting of approximately 6 miles of hills and sand based running. Making their annual visit to the event was the usual bunch of EPRC members showing an excellent display of running.
Winning the race was Adam Peers in 34:41 who was over 2 minutes ahead of nearest rival Ian Magill of Liverpool RC. 1st Ellesmere Port runner home was the ever improving Keith Jones in 9th position overall in 38:46. 10th position went to Matt Whitfield (39:20), 20th to Danny Legg (41:20), 22nd to Nicola Bird (41:20), 24th to Mike Burn (41:42) and 70th to Alison MacDonald (47:55).
Christleton 5k Road Race
Once again, EPRC had a fantastic turn out for the flat and notoriously fast Christleton 5k. As per usual, the quality of the field surely must be one of the best in the region, with the top three men dipping well under the magical 15 minute barrier. 1st place was Jonny Mellor in 14:30, 2nd went to Simon Mills in 14:47 just out sprinting the UK’s second placed runner in this year London Marathon, Andi Jones in 14:49.
Coming home first for EPRC was Steve Crowe in his second fastest 5k ever, 15:59 and 7th place. Steve, although disappointed that he didn’t hit his sub 15:50 target will know that later in the summer this will happen.
Denis Duret had his first outing in some while for 5k and managed a great time of 17:20 and 41st position. Denis is targeting breaking sub 17 minutes soon this year and hopefully this will give him the confidence knowing it won’t be too long.
Matt Whitfield running his second race in 3 days ran a blinder coming home in 18:37 and 76th place. Just unable to keep tabs on Matt, Nicky Bird ran strong and is showing positive signs of returning to form with a 18:41 and 81st place.
The race machine known as John Jennings was showing some speed also, zooming to 112th place in a time of 20:18. John’s main target however is a sub 40 minute 10k, which hopefully will come this summer.
Not far behind John and also well on the comeback trail from injury was Alison Hughes. Finishing 122nd and 20:57, Alison like many EPRC runners will be eying up Chester Half next weekend with confidence.
Muller Market Drayton 10k
Making the short journey to the Muller Market Drayton 10k to join 776 other runners were Matt Whitfield, Steve laker, Nicky Bird and Simon Jeffs among other EPRC members, all looking to take on the challenge and were all primed for personal bests.
As well as bursting goodie bags, PB’s galore were also in the bags.
1st home for the club was Simon Jeffs. Simon, after a couple of recent poor runs by his own very high standards, showed a stunning return to form and a new PB of 35:14 which was good enough for 17th position. Simon now has one foot in the sub 35 door which surely has to come in the approaching weeks?
Following Simon and once again crushing his previous PB at the distance was Stephen Laker just missing his target of sub 37 minutes, crossing the line in 37:03 (36th). Steve has now recovered from the Rotterdam Marathon and now has his sights firmly set on the Edinburgh Marathon in 10 days time.
Nicola Bird ran her socks off for 2nd Lady home and 65th place overall in 38:45. Hopefully with an autumn target she can get back into the winning way and back down into the low 37 minutes for 10k.
Making a welcome return to running over the past month or two was Tony “Hylander” Hyland. Tony whose now got his training regime sorted finished in 73rd place in a time of 39:05. With his recent resurgence he’ll have no problem rediscovering his old form and be back to 35 minute 10ks hopefully very soon.
For a V50, Matt Whitfield sure knows how to get his name around the local papers. Running his 3rd race in 5 days, and running a suicidal 5:36 first mile, Matt recovered enough to post a 39:18 good enough for 80th position.
Determined to run a flat course for a change, as opposed to trying for 10k PB’s in the Great Orme 10k, Jon Hawker decided to take an easier option and obliterated his previous 10k PB. Placing 153rd overall in a time of 41:54, Jon’s main ambition this year is to break that magical 40 minute barrier.
Showing that age hold knows barriers, Madeline Bird showed a blinding turn of speed producing a 47:29 10k PB for 326th position 4th V50 lady. Not only a marathon runner, Madeline can now concentrate on the shorter distances during the summer.
Trying to keep up with Madeline was Nigel Crierie. Running a solid 52:10 and 473rd Nigel will be hanging onto Madeline’s coattails for as long as possible.
Ranelagh Half Marathon
Travelling the 200+ mile journey to London was Mark Dodd in his warm up race before joining Steve Laker in the Edinburgh Marathon in 10 days time. After suffering a cold all week, Mark was not surprised his legs couldn’t pull him to his target time and had to settle for a disappointing 1:27:12 some 10 minutes slower than he originally wanted.
Thurstaston Multi-Terrain Challenge