The latest in the Saturday night Podium Races at Barrowford was over the 10k distance with Ben Fish from Blackburn Harriers winning the A Race and Claire Duck from Leeds winning the Women’s Race.
This is Ben’s second race win of the month – he won the Potteries Marathon on July 5th in 2.26.14 – and he was happy with the win and the way he raced telling the Club that he “Ran faster than expected, got a small gap over Dave Rigby after 2km and went on to win by 20 secs. Definitely an event for pbs!“
Laura Hesketh who runs for the Harriers on the Track and racing for Clayton at the Podium had a cracking run to break her PB saying “Cracking night at Podium 10k which saw lots of pbs. Super fast course so was hoping to get close to my pb of 38:56 so was over the moon to see a time of 38:32 when crossing the line“.
Full Results HERE
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Conrad McKee went over to the Windmill Half-Marathon following some good training of late and in optimistic mood. Five hundred and seventy five runners completed the course and Conrad did himself and the Club proud by winning the Race in a time of 78.21. In bouyant mood, Conrad said that “Was a tough race in tough conditions. There were 3 of us out in front right up to mile 7. The other 2 had slipstreamed me on lap 1 so I wanted to put some air between us with the wind behind me on lap 2. The plan worked and at mile 10 I opened up a gap with all 3 of us having to work hard in to the wind. I was glad to see the finish line”.
Full Results HERE
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Shaun Livesey is in training for the Nottingham Marathon and as part of his preparation, competed in the Elswick 10 mile road race at the weekend winning it in a time of 57. 49, a great confidence booster for the Marathon. Shaun spoke to the Club and commented that “I ran the Elswick express 10m road race on Saturday as part of my marathon prep for this coming weekend down in Nottingham. I used it as a bit of a sharpener, I ran a fairly comfy 57:49 on my own and on a windy day. 1st win of the season. Let’s hope I can bring the relay team home in first next weekend as part of the outlaw long distance triathlon”.
Full Results HERE
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Snowdon Race – July 18th 2015
Six Hundred and three runners took part in the Snowdon International Race and amongst them two Blackburn Harriers. A really tough Race this one and described by the Race organisers in the following way :
One of Europe’s toughest endurance challenges, the 10-mile race involves running from the edge of Lake Padarn in the village of Llanberis to the highest summit in Wales and England and back down. The first ever race was held on 19 July, 1976 after Ken Jones, a native of Llanberis put forward the idea to the village’s Carnival Committee. Eighty-six runners turned up for the race and it was won by Dave Francis from Bristol who completed the course in 1 hour 12 minutes 05 seconds. “It was pure curiosity that sparked the idea of the Snowdon race,” explains Ken. “As a walker and runner myself I’d always wondered what was the fastest time someone could run up and down Snowdon. So we arranged to hold the race as part of the annual Carnival activities in Llanberis and the event has grown ever since with up to 450 runners taking part this year.” In 1980 Llanberis and the Snowdon Race twinned with the Trofeo Vanoni mountain race held every October in the Italian village of Morbegno at the foot of the Alps. “For nearly a quarter of a century the people of Llanberis have been welcoming the runners from Morbegno to their homes and by now we are very good friends,” he adds.
The Snowdon Race was televised for the first time in 1987 on S4C and today it is one of the main events of the national sporting calendar. Runners from more than ten different countries compete every year but it is also a very important event locally which helps put Llanberis on the map and is a boost to tourism and the local economy.
Full Results HERE
Helen Leigh had a real quality race finishing 95th overall, 9th Woman and 2nd Woman in her age category with a tie of 1.33.07. She was delighted with her performance and told the Club that “After a tough couple of months trying to juggle shift work and training, I wasn’t sure how Snowdon would go. After setting off conservatively for once, I had a great race, feeling strong on the climb and getting to the windy summit in 1.02, I had a great descent finishing in 1.33 even with the course extended! I finished 2nd Open lady, and 9th international. Very pleased.”
John Orrell also had a good run ducking minutes under the two hour mark to finish 393rd in 1.57.06 and spoke enthusiastically about the Race to the Club afterwards, commenting that it “It was my first time at the Snowdon International Mountain Race on Saturday, at what was the 40th Anniversary of Ras Yr Wyddfa as its called in Welsh, and what a great occasion it was too. 600 plus runners were paraded through the centre of Llanberis behind a Samba band with past winners up the front, TV cameras and the whole town lining both sides of the street, taking us to the original 1976 start outside The Prince of Wales hotel.
Conditions were good, the sun was out and the temperature was hotting up. At 2pm we were off and soon out of town and onto the mountain road. This section past Stefan’s café was probably one of the steepest bits, but there were large crowds to keep us going. Once through the mountain gate and onto the Llanberis path, the gradient eased a little and it was steady up from there to the Halfway House. It got steeper then and more technical, climbing up Allt Moses and reaching the 3/4 mark at Clogwyn. The mountain air thinned here as we dipped in and out of cloud and the temperature dropped, but I felt really good and thanked Ingleborough, Pen-y-Ghent and Whernside for all my uphill training. The final push to the summit was exhilarating and as the wind picked up, I was able to pass a few on this section. I was ahead of my schedule too and reached the summit in 1.13.33
Now, I had been looking forward to a fast descent and thought about 6 times winner Andi Jones’s motto, “Go hard or go home”!, but I was soon reminded of the folly of this strategy, when just after the top I saw a pool of blood, (and there was a lot of it!) and a chap dressed in foil blankets being escorted by 3 mountain rescue. I thought if I go hard it will be more like, go down, lights out, GAME OVER, so I kept my brain engaged as I didn’t fancy half a day out with the undertaker! Back in town and off the mountain, after 10 miles, 5 up, 5 down, to the summit of Snowdon, the highest peak in Wales at 3560 ft I received what I thought was the biggest cheer I had ever had as hundreds of people gathered outside the Royal Victoria Hotel. I thought, ‘by eck, there’s a lot of folks here from Blackburn’, “smashing, thanks” I said and waved just as the Eryri guy passed. He must have been the landlord of the local pub or something. Anyway, it still felt good and I crossed
the finish line 397th with a chip time of 1.57.06.
Gary Priestley – (runs for the Harriers on the Track) – had a top run running for England and finished 9th overall in a time of 1.15.10 and was part of the winning England Team. Although Italy came 1st and 2nd, the England Team had four in the first ten.
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It was a relatively small field of runners at the third Race in the Horwich Jubilee Series on Wednesday 15th July with Chris Davies the leading Blackburn Harrier in 7th place (29.11) and his highest position in the Series to-date. With just one Race left Chris is in 3rd place overall for the Series.
Senior Race Results HERE
Allan Hartley finished in his highest position so far (20th) in a time of 32.06 followed by Kaylie Panaro in 71st place (38.53) and David Morris in 99th ( 47.19).
Amy Davies was the first Junior Blackburn Harrier home finishing 13th overall in 6.55 which leaves her in 1st place in the Series so far with one Race to go. Saul Sharp came in 38th in the field of 79 runners in a time of 7.45 with Isabelle Hartley in 50th (8.19) and the first 9yr old girl.
Junior Race Results HERE
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