Good times clocked at Helsby Half Marathon

Last Sunday saw the 25th staging of the hugely popular Four Villages Half Marathon. The scenic course starts and finishes in Helsby, and passes along country lanes through the attractive villages of Dunham on the Hill, Mouldsworth and Manley before returning to Helsby.

This year’s winner was Andy Norman of Altrincham & District who completed the race in a time of 1.05.58 ahead of Paul Freary of Belgrave Harriers 1.08.21 and Michael Aspinall of Lancaster and Morecambe 1.09.06.

With a field of over 1600 runners Ellesmere Port Running Club had 12 runners on the start line.

First runner home for the club was Denis Duret who posted a very pleasing time of 1.22.32 for 90th position overall.

Nicky Bird was the 2nd runner home for the club in a disappointing 1.24.16 by her own very high standards but still finishing as 6th Senior Lady.

Mike Burns produced an excellent personal best time of 1.24.56 (142nd) to take some 34 seconds off his previous best at Chester last May.

Chris Marshall made a quick return to form with a personal best time for the distance of 1.26.55 (189th).

Mark Dodd produced one of the performances of the day, after striving last year to dip under 1 hour 30 he finally did it with ease in his first attempt of 2006 in a fantastic 1.27.44 for 216th position.

Matt Whitfield was the next runner home for EPRC in a time of 1.28.54 (237th) but actually posted a quicker time at the half way point in the London Marathon last year and will be looking for improvement in the coming months.

A superb run on his debut for Ellesmere Port RC was Andrew Kinninmonth who clocked 1.30.39 (288th) with hopefully a lot more to come.

Brian Griffiths was the next runner home for the club in a time of 1.31.17 (313th) and was followed by Alan Durston in a time of 1.37.38 for 508th position.

Jon Hawker was the next runner to finish in a very pleasing personal best time of 1.38.17 with the only down side being that Jon didn’t start the race with his electronic chip and therefore won’t be in the official results.

Club secretary Dave Nalder was the next runner to finish for the club after posting a time of 1.38.32 (595th)

The final runner to finish for Ellesmere Port was Alison Hughes who gave a tremendous amount of effort to knock a massive 10 minutes off her personal best in a time of 1.39.38 to finish a very respectable 30th in the senior ladies age category.