Runners feel heat at Birchwood 10K Several hours before Paula Radcliffe’s Olympic marathon dream was ruined in the sweltering heat of Athens, six Ellesmere Port RC runners made the trip to Warrington for the very popular Birchwood 10K where the sunshine and blue skies finally made an appearance to the frustration of hundreds of runners.

First runner home for Ellesmere Port was Steve Crowe who finished the race in a personal best time of 35.55 taking 35th position overall in a field of 858 runners.
Danny Legg, running his first 10K race of the year was the next runner home for EPort finishing in a time of 39.03 for 117th position overall.

Not far behind Danny came Matt Whitfield who broke the forty minute barrier for the first time in a few years finishing in 134th position in a time of 39.35. Chris Marshall who is back training for another Marathon next month was next runner home in a time of 40.50 for 187th position.

Club chairman Dave Nalder was next runner to finish completing the course in a time of 41.17 to take 202nd position. Finally, Alan Durston not in his best running form by far at the moment but still standing up to be counted by continued racing finished in a time of 44.50 for 350th position.

On Wednesday 18th August three EPRC runners participated in the Wirral Seaside run series, which starts at Leasowe Lighthouse and follows an approximate distance of five kilometres along the front to Harrison Drive, Wallasey.

Steve Crowe was first runner home for the club, after breaking away straight from the off in a leading group of 5 runners Steve completed the course in a time of 16.28 to finish in his highest position so far in the series claiming 4th spot.

Next runner home was club captain Matt Whitfield who completed the course in 18.29 just one second slower than his 5K personal best that he achieved the week before in Sale. This gave Matt 20th position overall. Alison Macdonald was our next runner home completing the course in just over 21 minutes.

Finally on his last track outing of the season a week last Tuesday Steve Crowe entered the Trafford Open 800 metre race in Stretford and managed to shave a second off his PB to finish the race in 2 minutes and 4 seconds.