Torri 11.8k race
Value: Yes 10 Euros 10/10
Course: Excellent bit of every thing 9/10
PB no chance 3/10
Scenery 8/10
Atmosphere 9/10
Organisation 10/10
Our journey started on Feb 5th
2011 - some flying from Liverpool
and some from Manchester - 12 of us
and when teamed up with Astley and
Burnden running 
club a total of 26 healthy runners 
of
varying ages. When we landed in
The hotel was only 5 mins walk away from the train station. As we
arrived at the hotel our friend Davos
from Burnden running club had collected our race numbers so we had nothing to do
but relax for the rest of the day. Yeh right.
We all trotted down to the beach to sit in a bar by the sea eating
and drinking priceless. I had a walk to the gift shop and bought a football 
and
was having a kick about on the beach. Next minute it was a footie match Wesham v Burnden and Astley running club.
It was like a junior under 10s football match with all of us
chasing one ball. Right, the gauntlet was laid down; winner takes all, (all of
what I asked???). Sand was flying everywhere and the locals said it was like a
sand storm. The ball would not go where we wanted it to; 
it
seemed the ball had better ideas.
Our team was Lee “smiler” Barlow, Simone “I take no
prisoners” Eaton, Mick “the cat” Edge - we took an early lead. Simon Messi went pass three of their
players like a hot knife through butter, dribbling everywhere (which we had to
wipe off his face - think it was his egg butty). They soon came back 1-1 and the fans on the sea wall were
doing the Mexican wave.
Lee came up and made it 2-1
with a ‘Tony Green shot’ right in
the bottom corner of the beer bottles - (these are our goal posts). The crowd
went mental all 20 of them!
Wesham had to make a sub - well really what happened was Sarah “savage” came on to the pitch to
help Wesham out her first words were
“which
way do I run what do I do.!!!!!!!!!!!!” Soon Savage was sliding in making fantastic tackles but every time Savage went down there were five men on
top. After 3 hrs of footie Wesham won 15-3.
I think it was that score but Burnden
informed me it was 5-3.
At our night time
meal Mr. Lee Barlow and Mr. George Kennedy predicted they would
stuff me and basically everyone. Was this sun stroke or too much Pedro’s dirty beer. I will let you make
your own minds up on that on.
Race day
An early bed that night didn’t take place for everybody but all
made the trip down to the breakfast area of our posh 3* hotel where the banter revolved around not getting a lot of
sleep to the runners talk about niggles and injuries - it’s our ages you see.
We all had a go at the Predictor
Race, which was the Torri 11.8k race
and we all predicted what time we would finish the race. There was prizes for
the 3rd 2nd and 1st
who came the closest.
One
man, who shall remain nameless, but had a strong Scottish accent was the only person who said he wasn’t running the
race due to an unfortunate accident with one of the locals namely Mr. San Migel the night before. Mr. San Migel must have hit him several
times as the unnamed chap didn’t look to good at all. However he hadn’t
reckoned on his fellow runners giving him a harder time of it and made him
change his mind and his clothes and he slothfully put on his famous Wesham running kit. He was up for it
and Wesham was so proud of him.
A warm day greeted us when we were having our photo shoot outside
the hotel. So, instead of our winter long johns, bob hat and gloves, we could
wear what we enjoy wearing - that is our
vest and shorts .After a warm up getting
our muscles flexed and ready to run and also getting the aching out of our legs
after an impromptu game of football on the beach, the day before which ended in
Stewart Jones going down and staying
down after a tackle by a Weshamer
and being carried to the Mediterranean
sea to ease the swelling on his ankle, (and he managed to race ,tough lot
from Burnden), we were ready to
pitch our running talents against the Spanish
.
We all trotted round to the start of the race 900 + runners &
local TV were there recording the
race. The atmosphere was great, the roads were closed off, and the race started
bang on time.
I knew by looking at our gang that we had some strong runners and
was hoping for some good results, as we are vets it was in the vets category
that I thought we would shine brighter than the mid day sun in Wesham . As the race progressed we
headed towards Benalmadena which, in
turn, took us to the sea front and a tiled promenade which was lined with bars
and hotels to the left and spectators urging everybody on and the deep blue Med with the warm sun glistening on the
gentle ripples, to the right.
After 500 yards there was a long climb which seemed to go on and
on. This is where Lee was talking to
God. The road then headed to the
prom which was well supported I heard shouts of “bravo Westham”. The prom went out for 4 miles flat with yet again
more TV crew recording the race. As
we left the prom we started to climb and climb and yes, we climbed 3miles of
guess what? Climbing it was hard work but, funnily enough, enjoyable - well for
some. At the 11k mark you could hear the town square cheering - we were getting
closer to home. Then I turned a corner.
The built up area now was pushing us to the home run - the finish area
was in sight. So it was, I’m sure, at this point that the last of the runners’
energy was used up with a sprint to the finish. The crowds were cheering us in
– fantastic. It felt like you had won
the race.
Once everyone from our contingent had regrouped we took in the
results and soon found out we had three winners among us, all three being Ladies 1st vet 35 Sarah Sherratt,
1st vet 45 Carmel Sullivan 3rd vet 50 Lesley Fisher.
As
the podium was used by other winners it was our ladies next on and it was so
special to hear the commentator announce our ladies names. One by one they
stood on there respective 1st
and 3rd boxes to pick
up their well deserved cups and a little cash to the big cheer and whistles
from the whole group that was with Davos
Tours.
Afterwards we all
sat in the hot sunshine outside of a bar in the triangular square and drinks
were purchased and drank by the boat load until the team of “healthy runners” were no more.
We all meet in the local square to see who had won the Predictor Comp. 
It
came down to Mick Edge and Alan from Burnden Running Club. Both had a time of -7 sec and + 7 sec so it
went to tenths of seconds which Alan
won by 01 tenths of a second so, so close.
We then had an Interclub contest to see which club had
won over all and Wesham won by 4mins
17 secs - great result.
After a few beers and a butty we had a ‘press up’ contest - who could
do the most in 1min. Mick Edge, Wesham,
Lesley Burnden and Stewart Burnden. Shirts were off, if it was a coke
advert Mick Edge would have wonJ. Off
we went at a frantic pace - 1min seemed to be like an hour. Mick Edge 52 - Lesley 67 and Stewart 96. Burnden
had won and Mick was beaten by a
girl ha ha ha ha!
results
61st 00:46:57.81 03:59.85
EDGE MICHAEL M50
M
79th 00:48:06.18 04:05.67
BARLOW LEE M35
M
115th 00:50:01.40 04:15.48
SULLIVAN
118th 00:50:06.40 04:15.90
SHERRATT SARAH
163rd 00:51:51.26 04:24.83
VICKERS GRAHAM M50
M
271st
00:54:24.68 04:37.89 KENNEDY GEORGE M50 M
272nd 00:54:27.03 04:38.09
ASHWORTH TANYA M35
F
230th 00:53:23.79 04:32.70
EATON SIMON M40
M
675th 01:07:11.98 05:43.20
CRUSE JULIE
679th 01:07:12.98 05:43.29
DOCHERTY ANNE
563rd 01:01:57.03 05:16.39
FLANAGAN GEORGE M60
M
728th 01:10:46.73 06:01.48
CARDWELL DEBBIE M45 F
Mark Lysycia
Astley
& Tyldesley 54.55
Dave Pearson Burnden RR 54.33
Stewart Jones Burnden
RR 48.14
Keith Thomas Burnden RR 43.47
Ann Oliver Burnden
RR 1.07.25
Lesley Fisher Burnden RR 56.01
Andy Duffy
Burnden
RR 49.58
Jaqui Beevers Burnden RR 1.13.02
Ken Beevers
Burnden
RR 1.12.52
Barry Allman
Astley
& Tyldesley RR 1.01.01
Paul Basnett
Astley
& Tyldesley RR 1.05.43
Deniise Babynec Astley
& Tyldesley RR 1.09.14
Wayne Babyne Astley & Tyldesley RR 1.00.00
Brian Scully
Written by: Mick
Edge
Submitted: 15th
February 2011
Edited by: Brenda
J Earnshaw WRR Editor