Coopsy Does It Again Ellesmere Port Running Club’s top runner Ian Cooper continued his purple patch by smashing yet another personal best, this time at the Birkenhead Park 5 miler. The race, which consists of 5 laps of the park, was held last Wednesday and had 8 EPRC runners present.

Ian was first runner home for Eport finishing in a super quick time of 27.38 to finish 14th overall. Second runner home for Eport was Simon Jeffs who for the second time just missed out on dipping under 30mins to finish in 30.07 (35th). Club coach Tony Smith continuing his road to recovery was next home in 32.07 (53rd), Tony was quickly followed by Les Fleetwood 32.25 (56th). Keith Musson was next in, tackling the course in 33.56 (67th). Roy Traynor running his first race in awhile finished in 34.48 (72nd). Finally Nicky Musson completed the race in 44.23 (120th). Peter Geoghegan pulled out with cramp after the first lap.

Thursday saw 4 EPRC runners’ head to North Wales for the Deeside off-road series. Still not feeling the effects of the race the previous night was Ian Cooper who finished 5th Overall. Ian was followed by captain Matt Whitfield then Dave Nalder just about managed to hold of the sprint finish of Les Fleetwood. 30 miles east Tony Hyland used the Bowden 5K as a sharpener for this weekends Blackpool Marathon finishing in a time of 17.36

On Saturday the ever racing John Jennings travelled to Llanwrtyd Wells, Wales for the 22 mile Man-v-Horse race across fells, rivers, streams and forests. The race celebrating its silver jubilee had now accumulated a first prize of £25000 for any runner who could beat the first horse home. The feat had yet to be achieved but that changed on Saturday when top uk runner Huw Lobb from Bedford beat all the horses to collect the cash and finish in 2hrs 5mins 16secs. As for John’s race, only he could be involved in trying to lift a horse up that had become emerged in a bog, with John’s organisational skills it took five runners to finally free the horse and allow John to continue the race which he did in a fantastic time of 3hrs 9minutes to finish 83rd overall and beat 27 out of the 47 horses participating.

Congratulations must go to EPRC runner Chris Marshall who has recently returned from Portugal, Chris competed in the hot and gruelling Lanzarote Ironman triathlon, a continuous race that involves; a 2.4 mile ocean swim followed by a 112 mile cycle around the island and finishes with a 26.2 mile marathon run. After exiting the swim in 1:08.46 and taking 6:51.40 for the bike leg, he started out on the run and was on course for a sub four hour marathon up until the 16 mile mark when his efforts on the first two disciplines took their toll, slowing him down to an eventual run time of 4:25.02 and an overall finishing time of 12:38.08, well under his target time of 13 hours.

Finally entries are now being accepted for the Capenhurst 5K, which kicks off from the Electricity Sports and Social Club, Capenhurst Lane at 7pm on 25th August 2004. Entry Forms can be downloaded or collected from the Whitby Sports and Social Club.