Northern Championships Sunday 2nd March at Warrington
The races were organised by Northern Veterans at Victoria Park, Warrington.
Men 70+ and all ladies did 5k (2 laps) while the men 35 to 69 did 10k (4 laps).
Most of the course was surprisingly dry, except for around 200M of waterlogged and muddy ground. It was flat ground, with a lot of weaving through groups of trees and fallen branches to look out for.
Numbers were low, with less than 50 runners.
We all started together and it felt like a competitive race for the first 2 laps, after which half the runners came to the finish and the remaining “youngsters” continuing for another 2 laps. Most were well spread out and I found having a runner 300M ahead who I could not gain any ground on and no one close behind, made it a slog to the finish.
The 5K was won by Les Haynes, Bingley, in 22m-04 (First M70 award)
Other Bingley finishers were –
2nd Andrea Dennison 22m-10 (First F50)
4th Fred Gibbs 23m-06 (First M75)
6th Peter Covey 23m-46
12th Mike Smith (Snr) 26m-06
17th Pauline Smith 29m-29.
The 10k was won by Dean Furniss, M45, Hallamshire in 38m-18
Bingley finishers:
Bryan Parkinson 45m-29
Peter Ellerton 48m-21 (Second M65)
National Championships Saturday 15 March at Glasgow
This race, around Tolcross Park, Glasgow, was organised by Scottish Veterans with a 12noon 6K event for all ladies and men 65+ and a 1pm 8K race for men 35 to 64. Ground conditions were near perfect on the undulating grass course, but with strong, gusty winds on exposed sections. On our warm-up and course recce, the route was marked with plastic stakes and tied-on marker tape. In places, the tape had snapped in the wind and was blowing about threatening to trip people up. Many runners assisted by re-tying the tapes, but someone commented that in such conditions it was better to run the tape at ground level between stakes. I think he had a point.
Bingley had 4 runners in the 6K race and none in the 8K.
From the gun, Les Haynes ran strongly, Fred Gibbs paced himself well, and I tried to keep Fred in sight and catch up with him if I could. Fred worked his way through, with me working very hard just to stay close. He finished strongly, and I did not have the legs to catch him. We had same age category runners from Clydesdale club near us and it was obviously going to be a close call for the team prize.
103 completed the race, won by Lesley Chisholm, F35, Garsube Harriers in 22m-20. Bingley results were:
42nd Les Haynes 26m-11 Second M70
49th Fred Gibbs 26m-45 First M75
53rd Peter Ellerton 26m-52
79th Mike Smith (Snr) 29m-07
I felt I had a good run and it was humbling to check the results and find I had finished 8th M65 and that the first man in my category was 12th finisher in 24m-09. All the more credit to Fred and Les to finish first and second at National level in their age categories.
Fred had been able to run as M75 individual, but elect for M65 to 74 for team results, which allowed us to take First Team award for that age group.
Mike Smith had run as a potential counter for the team and also drove us to and from the event, for which we thank him. (Overnight stay Friday night in Motherwell)
Report by Peter Ellerton