Nicky cruises to victory at Chester Half Marathon.

One of the largest local races of the year, the Chester half marathon saw some 2000 runners on the starting blocks last Sunday morning to tackle the 13.11 mile course through the outskirts of Chester and finishing on the famous old roodee race course.

Ellesmere Port RC's Nicky Bird eased to a fabulous victory in the women's race despite being far outside her PB set at Liverpool in March. Nicky came home in 1 hour 21 minutes 49 seconds some 90 seconds ahead of second place Lyn Wright of Wrexham AC.

Alison Macdonald was the next runner home for EPRC ladies, completing the course in 1.39.14 finishing a splendid 4 th in the Lady Vet 35 category.

A superb run by Mandy Penfold in a personal best time of 1.51.27 helped EPRC ladies to a very respectably 4 th place in the team event behind Tattenhall, Macclesfield and Wrexham.

The men's race was won for the second year in a row by City of Stoke runner Mike Proudlove in 1.09.05, with Gerry O'Neill of Salford 2 nd in 1.09.58 and Michael Halman of Wilmslow AC 3 rd in 1.10.35.

Paul Robertson was the first Ellesmere Port runner to cross the line, finishing the race in 1.20.46 to secure 32 nd position.

Mike Burns has a few of his EPRC club mates looking over their shoulders as Mike continued his excellent recent form by smashing his personal best by 4 minutes to finish in 1.25.29 for 81 st place.

Matt Whitfield was the next runner home for the club finishing in 1.26.29 for 97 th position.

Brian Griffith, another runner in fine form at the moment produced one of the performances of the day by setting himself a new personal best time of 1.29.49 to secure 146 th place and make up the team scoring for EPRC giving them 8 th position out of 30 complete teams.

John Jennings was the 5 th runner home for the club in a steady 1.31.04 (169 th).

Dave Nalder was 6 th home for the club after negotiating the course in 1.32.28 (206 th).

Steve Blaylock was roughly where he wanted to be with a time of 1.32.55 (217 th) for the clubs 7 th runner home.

Les Fleetwood was next to cross the line finishing in 1.37.43 (344 th) and was soon followed by Alan Durston 1.37.59 (350 th)

Kevin Curtis was the 10 th EPRC to finish after tackling the course in 1.39.19 (401 st) and was followed by David Roberts 1.44.06 (599 th), Andrew Hunt 1.46.08 (667 th) and Thomas Downey 1.47.45 (733 rd).