Worsthorne Trail Race
Three Blackburn Harriers – Chris Davies, Andy Buttery and Bryan Searby were out on the Trails at Worsthorne over the weekend along with one hundred and thirty three other runners. Chris had a cracking run to finish in 3rd place (42.13), just ten seconds shy of Matt Perry in second spot with Tom Corrigan winning in a time of 40.48; And, in his first year as a V40 Chris won the Vet 40 1st prize on the day. After the Race, Chris reflected “Didn’t know what to expect with this one. Richard Taylor talked me through it a few days before the race but still it’s tough when you’ve never done it before. This race has a lot of everything in it, well worth a go if you want something different. I had another good outing, my form over the last few months has been really good and it stayed with me on the day. The hard work is paying off and I hope it continues into the XC season. Great efforts from Bryan and Andy also. Well done guys”.
Andy Buttery was next home in 11th place (45.28) and was 2nd V45 on the day. Andy commented that “Worsthorne is one of my favourite local races having a good route, good atmosphere and being only £5 entry! This was my 7th Worsthorne and I’ve had some good runs in recent years finishing in the top three in my last three outings including an outright win in 2008. Unfortunately this year I wasn’t in good form on the day and felt pretty off-colour by the top of the first climb to slip from a promising early position to 11th by the end of the race. This I put down to just a bad day rather than anything to worry about. By contrast Chris had another excellent run and paced the first climb well to move steadily away from me and into the top 3 by the finish.”
Bryan Searby came home in 74th place (57.45) and told the Club after the Race that he “hadn’t planned on racing due to struggling with my iron levels but thought I would. Tough 7 mile with 900ft Mix of Trail and Fell. Struggled first mile but dug deep and managed to pick my pace up when I hit the moor. Chris had an outstanding run”.
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Blackpool Air Show 10k
Two hundred and forty three runners braved the raging wind at Blackpool to take on this Race won by Andi Jones in a time of 32.49. Four Blackburn Harriers took part in this with Carly Edwards being highest placed in 67th position with a time of 44.47 and 2nd Woman on the day. She was followed in by Michael Sharp in 92nd spot (47.43), new member Annabel Farrar in 163rd (56.49) and Lindsay Davies in 189th place (60.57) who commented “I ran this 10k today, I got out of bed this morning and saw how windy it was and thought OMG Blackpool is going to be horrendous. I was totally right, first mile was behind then the next 4 mile was against hurricane winds, at one point I wasn’t getting anywhere because the wind was blowing me backwards, my breathing was spot on but my legs were really tired. The last two miles was behind again and that’s were I had to make my time up again, had to dig it out with tired legs and finished just over an hour, happy with my time due to losing my pace having to run into the wind”.
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Borrowdale – August 6th
This iconic Fell Race covering 17 miles including 6500 feet of ascent (27km, 2000m) saw three hundred and fifty two runners complete the race won by Ricky Lightfoot in a time of 2hr 49.51.
Blackburn Harrier – Andy Heys – has developed a ‘passion’ for the Fells of late and got stuck into one of the hardest around finishing 321st in a time of 5hr 18.35 and said “My first real experience of running a ‘Lakeland classic’. One word to describe this race – brutal! It had everything, Miles of near vertical ascent, traversing fields of boulders, near vertical descents across loose scree, claggy moorland, technical rocky paths, etc…. Quite literally the toughest challenge that I have ever completed. So pleased to have finished the race considering that I nearly threw the towel in on more than one occasion. It’s given me a new perspective on fell running and a real hunger to get back in to the fell’s and tackle more of this type of racing…. , well, when I can walk properly that is”.
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