THE FUTURE’S BRIGHT THE FUTURE’S ORANGE (& BLACK!)
I must start this race report with a number of apologies. Firstly, to Ann Ball for omitting her from my report on the Christleton 5k on 9 May 2008 where she clocked a PB of 27m53s, and secondly, to Matt Whitfield (62m17s) and Brian Griffiths (69m17s) for not mentioning at all their excellent runs at the Waterloo 15k on 5 May 2008.
CHESTER HALF MARATHON 18 MAY 2008
Ellesmere Port Running Club were once again very well represented at the Chester Half Marathon on Sunday 18 May 2008 with 15 orange vested runners amongst the close on 1,850 competitors. Many EPRC runners completed their first (competitive) half marathon in some quite excellent times while others showed pleasing return to their form of old.
First home for the club was the fast improving Paul Ashley in 1h27m6 (78th), closely followed by
Dave Nalder 1hr29m49s(118th), Brian Griffiths in 1hr31m51s(160th), and John Hawker in 1hr33m30s(191st). EPRC’s first lady across the line, and retaining domestic bragging rights, was Alison Hughes in 1hr33m50s (199th). This performance bodes well for Alison’s assault on next week’s Edinburgh Marathon. A flurry of runners gamely pursued Alison to the finish including: Roy Traynor in 1hr3423s (209th), John Cole 1hr35m28s, another Edinburgh contender, (239th), Jason Bennett in 1hr40m53s (397th), John Jennings in 1hr41m49s (421st), Alan Durston in 1hr41m54s (427th). After suffering a recurrence of recent injury woes Simon Jeffs fought his way to the line in 1hr48m28s (694th), just ahead of Kevin Curtis in 1hr50m27s (772nd). Next came a trio of new recruits all displaying their versatility by massively stepping up in distance from recent runs with Fiona Pickard 2hr1m47s (1216th) leading the way, just keeping ahead of Ann Ball 2hr2m50s (1251st), and Julie Pearce in 2hr4m3s (1841st).
The above excellent results enabled the Mens’ team to finish 8th out 23 teams and the Ladies’ 9th out of 18 teams.
CHOLMONDELEY 10K 18 May 2008
Mike Burns was EPRC’s sole representative in the Cholmondeley 10k, a superbly organised off-road event run primarily around the Cholmondeley Castle Estate in south Cheshire. Mike put in a decent run finishing in something over 40 minutes (can’t be any more accurate as no official times available and watch is broken) to finish in 8th place. Ably supporting Mike were his partner, Alison Macdonald, and children; Eve Burns, Freya Burns and Ingrid Burns, who all completed the shorter 2.5k run in very good times.
Good luck to all EPRC runners taking part in the Edinburgh Marathon. Let’s hope the music playing at the finish line is not the Kaiser Chiefs’ “I predict a riot” although if Pasha can dip under 3 hours it might just be appropriate!
