St Annes 10 Sunday 4^th March 2007

Scenery: 7

PB potential: 0 (Today; first half running into a hurricane! Probably the worse ever conditions I’ve ever come across on a road race – nearly bought a certain Preston Harrier to tears.). It was much worse than Haweswater. (Julie Cruse got a Pb there; I rest my case!)

Atmosphere: 9 – great encouragement from marshals and spectators.

Organisation: 8. Personally, I’d like to receive my number before the day. (Don’t like being hemmed into a small corridor and room with 341 other runners!)

Runners appeared to come from far and wide and unattached runners appeared to make up a small percentage for a change. Good feedback on the Message Board from other local clubs, which is always a good sign.

Value: 9 - £5.50 to enter and pie and peas after.

Beginner Friendly: 10

Michaela and I reluctantly left our car at 11:20 to jog down to the yacht club. We were nearly there, when we bumped into Steve Myerscough. He still hadn’t got his number. (He couldn’t find the Fire Station!) Somehow he managed to get to the Start on time! Johnny Winters was on the Start line again. (Why does he do that!!!!???) Lee Barlow and myself went to the opposite side to get away from him. He’s going to cause an accident one day. John Bertenshaw commented I’d lost weight. I’ll have to get him a drink on Monday!

He showed me a clean pair of heels when we set off. I got in a group with a couple of Clayton runners and felt I could go faster. I moved out to overtake, but the wind was that strong, I couldn’t run any faster. At Fairhaven, the wind knocked you sideways. It was nice to see Roy Pickles at this point watching from his car,

The marshals were shouting “Well run Martin”, closely followed by “Well run Pete”. I thought to myself Pete Waywell? No, he’s in front. Pete Cooke? No, Pete shouldn’t be that close, should he? It wasn’t till I exhausted all the Pete’s in the club, that it struck me, it was Pete Gleaves!

St Annes is a fairly unique course where you can see the leaders. Preston’s Steve Hallas was 2^nd and looking good. Lee Barlow was our only top tenner, but Steve Myerscough, Karl Lee and Peter Waywell were all in contention.

We turned round at the windmill and headed back to St Annes. Michaela was looking good and we shouted encouragement to each other cos we’re fiancés.

Only six runners got under 60 today. (There were 19 last year).The race was won by Jamie Reid (Ronhill Cambuslang) in 55:34.

1^st Lady: Toni McIntosh (Stockport) 66:41. Jamie has done a 2:24 marathon.

There were 29 Wesham runners:-

9^th Lee Barlow 60:57

11^th Steve Myerscough 61:16

16^th Karl Lee 61:48

19^th Peter Waywell 62:28

24^th Alan Hudson 62:56

33^rd John Bertenshaw 63:38

35^th Ian Sharples 63:43

49^th Martin Bates 66:14

79^th Peter Gleaves 68:22

100^th Michaela Dempsey 72:19

102^nd Andrew Owen 72:30

107^th Graham Vickers 72:56

140^th Kath Hoyer 75:55

144^th Des Cleary 76:22

155^th Chris Moss 77:58

172^nd Stephen Wilkinson 80:33

179^th Peter Bartlett 81:02

189^th Peter Cooke 82:09

190^th Shaun Turner 82:13

197^th Nigel Shepherd 82:50

202^nd Douglas Brown 83:26

226^th George Flanagan 86:13

228^th Jenny Salt 86:19

238^th Paul Carter 87:47

242^nd Ken Munro 88:04

243^rd Julie Murphy 88:14

275^th Jennifer Thompson 93:07

276^th Pauline Weller 93:17

300^th Pauline Mills 97:31

Six of us, (Ian Sharples, me, Michaela, Graham, Kath and Pauline Weller), also ran cross country yesterday. Lytham’s Colin Laidlaw said I had my best run of the year yesterday. He made my day!

Written by Martin Bates

Submitted: 5^th March 2007

Edited by: Brenda J Earnshaw WRR Editor