Chernobyl 10k Sunday, 30^th July, 2006

MARTIN’S RACE RATINGS:

Do it again: Yes

Scenery: 7

PB potential: 5 (Not sure if it’s not a tad long; seems a long way from the 6 mile marker to the finish!)

Atmosphere: 8 Good race to spectate and a good field

Organisation: 10 Results on web when I got home. (Via Next, The Continental, Deepdale Retail Park for some golf balls and The Barton Fox)

Value: 6 (An expensive £7 to enter on the day, but it is for charity). (The contamination from Chernobyl was 90 times worse than Hiroshima)

Beginner Friendly: 10

Feel like I’ve said it all before on races I tend to do every year, (this one twice a year), so I’ll try and be brief.

I think the January Chernobyl race was full, so we arrived about 10 to 10. Michaela and Levon didn’t hang about – they took off to McDonalds.

Graham Vickers had forgotten his vest and was trying to find a spare – Andy Yelland came to the rescue. I wished I’d brought my camera as we haven’t got Andy’s photo on the A – Z gallery! The race does a small loop round the housing estate, then onto the tree lined tramway path, (I think), till the bridge, then right, following the river till the A6, then back along the north side of the river, back across the bridge and about 2 miles back to the finish.

I was neck and neck with Preston’s Anne Sweeney for a short while. Anne finished 3^rd Lady. Chris Whitlock and I then locked horns – the “lead” changing a few times over the course. Chris was chasing his PB and, I think I’m right in saying, he equalled it. I’ve run this route loads of times when I used to work in Preston and in the sadly defunct Shawes Arms Series and the Interclub. 95% of it is a good, traffic free, route. On one run, I once saw a baby seal basking near the Shawes Arms!

Back to the race…..running with Chris was like running with John McEnroe. (He was really putting the effort in and breathing really heavily). With a mile to go, he took off and left me behind and beat me by 9 seconds. At the 5 mile point a nearby runner shouted 32 minutes, so it took us 9 minutes to do the last 1.2. Adam Sutton felt the course was 40 seconds out.

1^st Man: Adam Sutton 31:09 1^st Lady (23^rd) Caroline Betmead 37:52

29 Wesham Runners in this non-championship race:-

14^th Lee Barlow 36:47

17^th Pete Cruse 37:21

26^th Keith Wilding 38:09

31^st Peter Waywell 38:53

34^th Andy Yelland 39:13

44^th Simon Eaton 39:58

54^th Chris Whitlock 40:59

56^th Martin Bates 41:08

64^th Adam Wilding 42:07

73^rd Phil Leaver 42:46

90^th Glen Mitchell (West Pennine/Wesham) 43:33

100^th Graham Vickers 43:59

108^th Alan Taylor 44:27

111^th Sarah Sherratt 44:39

117^th Chris Wilding 45:02

134^th Nigel Shepherd 46:04

146^th Yvonne Russell 46:26

150^th Stephen Wilkinson 46:34

168^th Bernie Krawczyk 47:48

174^th George Flanagan 48:13

176^th Doug Brown 48:18

184^th Paul Carter 48:50 (Also 21^st in the Fun Run)

186^th John Howorth 49:01

213th Julie Cruse 51:15

248^th Pauline Weller 53:11

255^th Mark Wilson 53:41

289^th John Whiteman 56:36

338^th Lisa Davenport 63:31

340^th Jenny Gomrey 63:52 (Down as unattached, but presume it’s our Jenny)

366 finishers

Other celebs amongst the finishers:

205^th Ron Hill 50:39

272^nd Rod Berry 54:58

Ron organises races in the Langdales and still wears a pair of 20 year old Ron Hill shorts. And to think I got stick for wearing Dave Waywell’s cast-offs!!

Footnote: 7 Championship Races left:

Chorley Interclub 16/8

Red Rose Interclub 5/9

Kirkham 10K 10/9

Garstang 10K 24/9

Pier to Pier 15K 8/10 (closing date for entries 25/9)

Green Drive 5 15/10

Preston 10M 19/11

Written by: Martin Bates

Submitted: 31^st July 2006

Edited by: Brenda J Earnshaw WRR Website/Magazine Editor