Thumbs up to February!  As the days draw out and the snow drops are blooming

The Blackburn Winter Warmer 10k on Sunday was blessed with good weather although there was still a good deal of snow lying around, and the race organisers Blackburn Road Runners had done an excellent job of gritting the course and sweeping all lanes of the athletic track used for the start and finish clear of snow. And they were well prepared for the 700+ competitors, a very good turnout for this hilly and countryfied course with its awesome initial climb up the notorious Bunser Lane.

Tanya Shaw and Jo McCaffery with Paul Carter with lots of other runners

The big action of the week was the Northern Athletics Cross Country Championships at Pontefact Racecourse on Saturday where conditions were bright and dry with a firm course. Wesham had a good entry, and in the Senior Women’s 8k race Anne Mayers-Smith finished 233^rd in 39:46. The Senior men ran over 12k and right to the fore was Wesham’s Rob Danson who had a stormer of a run to finish 9^th overall contesting the lead at one point, finishing in a time of 39:28 just 1:24 behind the race winner Emile Cairess of Leeds City. This will give Rob serious street cred in the Inter-Counties in March and is the best-ever performance by a Wesham athlete. David Taylor had a good run finishing 237^th in 46:51; Mark Bellfield was 334^th in 49:14; Mark Renshall a good run finishing 498^th with 53:46; John Collier 589^th in 57:40; Ben Wrigley 633^rd with 1:01:08 and Martin Bates 639^th in 1:01:24. Peter Bartlett finished 699^th in 1:15:19.  The team placed 37^th overall. There were 4 Lancashire clubs fielding a Men’s team and 3 clubs with a Women’s team.

Mid January is a period for half marathon races as runners kick off their spring marathon training before digging into the long distance mileage, with many already having been preparing in the run up to Christmas and the New Year, a period that also allows some relaxed training. The Inskip Half marathon was rewarded with 217 runners and after the bitter driving sleet of 2018 the weather was gorgeous for the duration with no wind and a warming sun.

Saturday afternoon witnessed the fourth fixture in the current season on the Mid-Lancs Cross Country League in Towneley Park in Burnley.  Very low cloud and set-in heavy drizzle greeted early arrivals but by the time of the senior races this has abated and was left with the characteristic cold wind gusting across the parkland and playing fields now used for the course. Kath Hoyer was the only Wesham woman running in the 6km course over 1 small, 1 medium and 1 large lap, finishing 4^th W55 and 75^th in 26:01.