Road Running Newsletter #7
‘Why should we bother to race? If you’re asking that, I might say why bother to run at all?
Editors Note:
Welcome to the 7thER newsletter which concentrates on Champs races #5 & 6 @Dentdale and Frenchfield as well as the forthcoming Blackpool ½.
Race #5: Dentdale 14 Saturday 8th March 2014
Unfortunately no race report for the Dentdale 14 as yours truly was laid up with a temperature/virus, but a full set of results can be found at
Nine ER’s attacked the challenging 14mile plus course on its 30th anniversary with gusto and achieved some good times. First ER was Geoff Chapman 1:44:55, followed by Mike Bell 1:46:47 and Andy Walker 1:57:44. Good performances were also seen by Wade Tidbury, Tony Lowery and Kevin Whitemore in 4, 5 and 6th respectively. Karen Bridge led home the women in 1:51:57 after completing the Penrith Park run earlier in the day! Julia King strengthened her hold on the overall leader board edging out her closest challenger Ally Walker. Well done to Julia who finsihed 9th overall in the 55> category. The pictures shows the ‘ever the showman Geoff Chapman responding to the encouragement of the crowd – well done Geoff. Julia King as usual is showing the opposition a clean pair of heels as she attacks yet another climb in the beautiful countryside of Dentdale.As you can see Tony has a less relaxed style up the said hills!
Race #6: Penrith Park Run Saturday 15th March 2014
If anybody doubts the competiveness of ERs they should have spent some time down at Frenchfield on Saturday morning where 15 ERs took part in the second Park Run included within the the 2014 championships. The course had thankfully dried out to a large degree in comparison to the last champs race but this meant that there could be no excuses for a slow time. Replacing the sodden ground was a biting and strong wind which hit the runners for the last ½ mile or so of each lap. An excellent overall turnout of 90 runners continues to show that this event can be viewed as a success and the support provided by fellow ERs on the sidelines is much appreciated.It should also be mentioned that our beloved Chairman Andy was undertaking his now familiar role as a marshall at the entrance to loop behind the Penrith FC ground, his encouragement was much appreciated.
There was the usual cavalry charge out to the first bend with Dave Sargent leading the way despite the strongheadwind. It was soon obvious that the conditions underfoot were better than usual and apart from the ‘rough’ ground after about ½ mile the pace was fast. Going into the second lap I had a small lead over Julia, Anna & Kevin with Tony, Wac and Paulo having their own battle about 200 metres ahead and Martin trying to catch the Hurtons/Sargent coalition. The second lap was a struggle as the fast start started to take its toll and it was not long before I was overtaken by Anna and then by Julia. Any hopes of closing the gap were crushed as the headwind took what energy I had left, as I stumbled over the finishing line with a pleasing 50s reduction to my PB. Well done to Dave Sargent, Noah (junior) and Derek Hurton who took the first 3 places in the race. Further down the field Martin was the 3rd Senior ER to finish as Wac won the battle of the 3 musketeers to pip Paulo and Tony. Tony took an amazing 2 ½ minutes off his PB!!! Karen took first place in the women’s race followed by Anna and Julia. Special well dones to Shaun and Gill Silson who competed in their first Penrith Park Run and to Kathleen who continues to make massive improvements.
Mens Results:
Dave Sargent
Women’s Results:
Overall Standings (after race #6)
Wac takes a 7 point advantage into race #7 over Kevin who in turn is 4 points ahead of Tony in 3rd place. The women’s champs seems to be developing into a contest between Julia (127pts) and Ally (below) (111pts) with Anna and Karen both on 75 pts in joint third.
Overall Standings after 6 events
Next Race Blackpool 1/2Sunday6thApril 2014
The first ½ marathon of the champs takes place at Blackpool in what promises to be a race for PBs.
You can enter at:
Remaining Races
Happy running, enjoy it while you can!
Dave P