Week ending 10th July 2022

Holy Ultras Batman

Another epic ultra-running week included Eve Hart and Sacha Fox following in the footsteps of the pilgrims, running 100k from the Scottish Borders to Holy Island with the mother of all cut-offs provided by the incoming tide. It’s a measure of their achievement that 40% of the field failed to complete the race in the sweltering heat and a measure of their friendship that they stuck together throughout.

Lakeland Trails

The poorly named Lakeland trails 55k (it’s always closer to 60k) hosted Lee Entwistle, Lee Troughton, Rick Madden and Anthony Metcalf. Anthony must be super pleased as this race has been unfinished business for him. This race is a super intro to Lakeland ultra-running, it has all the hills but no scrambles or particularly technical sections. The climb in the shadow of Helvellyn to Grisedale Tarn is a highlight but the soul destroying final few kilometres within earshot of the finish line announcements is a killer.

At the same event, Ben Smith and Sam Booth (f) completed the challenging 23k route.

Sinister Weekend

Andrew Giles ran the 52k of section 2 of the sinister weekend in stunning Alberta following a 19-mile mountain hike and before manning an aid station for the final section.

An RRC visit to Canada is looking increasingly inviting.

Maverick Terrex Chilterns Ultra

Sarah Clarke who now takes these things in her stride was a lone ram in Buckinghamshire for a scenic 52k ultra, described by the organisers as your “fastest and funnest” ultra. We’ll let Sarah confirm that.

Rochdale 10k

Earlier in the week Sacha Fox was warming up for her amazing effort in Northumberland at the undulating Rochdale 10k.

Wilmslow 10k

Cecilia Woods ran the Wilmslow 10 in an impressive sub 50 time along with Luke Everitt, Catherine Mcintyre, Harriet Mcintyre, Diane Cohen and Sim Parrott.

Towneley 10k

Diane Ford and Lee Ford who are regulars at Towneley Park for Burnley parkrun were joined by Steven Lenihan as they doubled the distance at the 10k race.

parkrun

RRC support for parkrun continued with an incredible 18 events including our members this week.

parkrun tourist of the week was Lesley Heyes who visited Byxbee parkrun in California where it was almost as hot as Bolton where Paula Pilling finished first female. Paula was joined at Bolton by Laurence Keighley, Andrew Patterson, Michelle Patterson, Paula Jones, Richard Lord, Abbie Gregson, Colin Olajide, Cecilia Woods and Adrian Campbell.

We had tourists the length and breadth of the UK with Andy Norman at Parke parkrun in Bovey Tracey (Devon) and super tourist Alan Blagburn at Queen's parkrun in Glasgow.

(I know its not all about me but Andy’s run in Bovey reminded me of the time I released an adder in the open-air pool there in the late 1970’s. Anyway, it emptied faster than when I released a different foreign object when my swim nappy fell off in Ibiza in 1969.)

At Stretford’s fast course Steve Lenihan was a first timer with a great time of 22 minutes and Sarah Sutcliffe was clearly going easy on husband James as they trotted round in a relaxed (for Sarah) pace.

Adrian Booth visited Jesmond Dene parkrun, David Rudman and Katie Lougheed were at Fletcher Moss parkrun, Adam Bolton took on nearby Watergrove parkrun, Nidya Arunkumar tried out Worsley Woods parkrun, Don Nichol was the sole Ram at Hyndburn parkrun and we had the usual large turnout at Heaton parkrun, well done to Alexander Shield, Andrew Hill, Martin Chepner, Vanessa Lobb, Luisa Shield, Cathryn Gawthorpe, Adie Graham, Dave Carroll, Sandra Powers, Catherine Shield and Gemma Duffy.

Richard Jones, Peter Taylor and Paul Jenkins sampled the new anytime parkrun at Burnage.

Neil and Karen Rothwell ran together at a scenic North Yorkshire Water Park parkrun and Julia Martin was the sole Ram at Peel parkrun.

Ian Douglas’ 20 minutes at Rothay was another time of note this weekend.

You can find the full RRC parkrun results for the weekend here.

Great running again everyone- as always, I’ve done my best to find everyone’s extra-curricular activities but please do share on the FB post if I’ve missed you out.