The Great Langdale Marathon

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This very tough Race us described by the Race Website thus “A beautiful hilly full marathon road run around England’s most scenic valleys. The Langdale Marathon races have the reputation as being amongst the toughest road events in the UK. Exceptionally hilly with some parts of the course climbs being 1:3 this challenging race attracts both seasoned runners as well a large number of ordinary people looking to challenge themselves. Hosted in the beautiful Langdale valleys the route takes the runners in an anti clockwise direction from Great Langdale to Little Langdale through to picturesque hamlets of Skelwith bridge, Chapel Style and Dungeon Ghyll.

Full Results HERE

A great win for Shaun Livesey  – 3hrs. 09.28 – at this years Great Langdale Marathon which saw him come home nearly eight minutes in front of 2nd place to earn £500.00 and this very nice Trophy.

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Shaun spoke to the Club after and has this to say about his Race  “Woke Saturday morning to shocking weather torrential rain. Drove to langdale where the weather was no better. The race organisers postponed the start by half an hour which proved to be a good call. With dry weather we were off. I started well within myself knowing the second lap was key. At around 9m I caught a fellow running who I thought was doing the half because he was working hard ( Dave Edwards) however he was doing the full so I passed him on the second big climb out of skelwith bridge. At mile 10 I caught a Eden Valley runner who also was running the full, he commented on how strong I was looking so I decided to push on early. I passed the finish line and started my second lonely lap. I stayed strong and my form was good until mile 23 then I was running on empty, conscious that I may be caught in the later miles. I checked over my shoulder as I approached the finish and tucked my vest in ( to look smart) and was greeted by my family and friends. I was chuffed to bits to have bagged a marathon win and to do it on such a tough course. I finished in a time of 3:09:30 but that was irrelevant a win is a win”.

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(Warming down with the family)

Lake Vyrnwy Half-Marathon

lakes-vrywywy_1945655iIn 1988 Mr David Rowlands, treasurer of St Wddyn’s Church at Llanwddyn made a centenary appeal to raise money towards church roof and other repairs. He placed this appeal in the Advertiser newspaper where Mr Doug Morris of the Oswestry Olympians read the appeal and offered to organise a half marathon. At the outset, Doug believed it would probably only be a one off race, little did he know that he’d organise it successfully for 20 years, making it continuously bigger and better. Sadly Doug died in 2008 but his legacy goes on.

Full Results HERE

Thirteen hundred and eighty five runners completed this years Race which saw Blackburn Harrier Ben Fish win in a time of 67.54 and just 20 seconds in front of 2nd placed finisher Andrew Davies from Stockport.

Ben commented after the Race that it was anAn interesting battle, Andrew Davies was racing at marathon pace, so decided my best option was to go out hard and hang on. A bit of a scrappy run but got the job done”

 ♦

From Hel n’ Back

Blackburn Harrier – Helen Leigh – clearly doesn’t believe in the idea of ‘rest’. She has just won the C2C monster event over four days, followed that up with 7th Woman in the Ben Nevis Race and then decided to have a go at the From Hel n’ Back Fell race this last weekend, organised by  Helensburgh AC – or – as it may come to be known Helen’s Borough!!

Full Results HERE

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Ninety three runners lined up and no prizes for guessing who was first woman home. Helen won the Women’s Race in a time of 57.54 and was 12th overall. We wait with baited breath as to the next adventure in Helen’s quite amazing feats of endurance!

Witton Park 5k Run

The Course

The course is 5000m (5K) long. This has been accurately measured by us with a professional measuring wheel. The course is at Witton Country Park, Blackburn. The course is run on a mixture of tarmac paths, trail paths, gravel paths and stone paths. Some sections of the course may accumulate mud, leaves and puddles after rain. Dependent on availability, marshals will be at key sections of the course, or signs will be in place.

Full Results HERE

Third week of this newly organised Park 5k Run at Witton Park and numbers were down a little on the first two with one hundred and sixty two runners. Only a few Blackburn Harriers at this one as many were competing at other events.

This weeks Race was won by Chris Chadwick in 19.16. First timer at one these events, Michelle Teare led the three Blackburn Harriers home in 46th position (26.16) followed by another first timer – Jackie Taylor – in 49th (26.32) and David Billington 50th with a new PB of 26.34.

Joanne Nelson – (runs on the Track for the Harriers) – went up to the Garstang Half-Marathon as part of training for a forthcoming Marathon. She put in a very solid run to be 1st Woman home and 14th overall in a time of 88.04. RESULTS

Paul Wilkinson and Michael Sharp were up at the Great North Run on Sunday with Michael recording 2hrs.00.42 and Paul 1hr.55.25. Amazingly this is Paul’s 16th Great North run which we are pretty certain is something that hasn’t been matched by any other Blackburn Harrier, so many congratulations to Paul.