Well over 300 runners turned out at this years Green Drive 5 held on Sunday October 22nd and incoporating the Lancashire Athletics Association 5 mile Road Racing Championships. (RESULTS). Blackburn Harriers Daniel Bebbington had a fine race, over a distance he hasn’t done previously on the road, taking the win in 24.13 just over a minute in front of Luke Minns in 2nd (25.17) and Alex Curran in 3rd (26.41). Speaking to the Club following the race in which he picked up the Lancashire title as well as the race win, placing him 9th in the National Rankings, Daniel told us that it was a “Last minute decision to race today at the Green Drive 5 as I was originally doing the Northern XC Relays which unfortunately got cancelled. The aim of the race was to try and have a go at breaking the course record which I fell slightly short of by 7 seconds. Nevertheless I came away with the win and a solid solo run for my first race of the winter season.” Also having a really good run was V40 James Bretherton who smashed his personal best as he set a new PB time of 27.40 – an improvment by over a minute and a half finishing in 6th place and 2nd V40. V45 Paul Jeffries ran 36.35 in 104th place in his second race of the year.
James Bretherton (43)
Still on the Road and this time at the Leeds Abbey Dash run on Sunday October 22nd and won by Baldvin Magnusson in 28.51 from Liverpool’s Jonny Mellor in 2nd (28.53) and Luton athlete Jed Noblett in 3rd place (29.11). Blackburn Harriers David Almond (V55) finished in 309th spot clocking 37.19 which gave him the 3rd spot overall in the male V55 age category.
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Jonny Murphy had been putting in the training for the marathon – having already run 2hr 56.50 in Manchester 2019 and reduced that massively to 2hr 45.17 in Manchester 2022 – he was taking his third race at the Amsterdam Marathon on October 15th. (RESULTS). Jonny ran a time of 2hr 47.10 and spoke to the Harriers about his race telling us that “As I made my way to the start pen for the Amsterdam marathon the heavens opened and the hail began to come down! This made for really tough running conditions in the early stages of the race. After around 8kms of running the weather let up and the sun came out just in time to see our supporters cheering us on at the 10km mark which really spurred me on. At the half way point on the out and back on Amstel canal around I was feeling my pace start to slip as I battled the wind and hail once more. At the 18 mile point I seemed to rally and managed to pull back my splits somewhat before completely hitting a wall at mile 23 The final mile of the race was a real struggle but the support along the way and into the stadium was was one of the best atmospheres I’ve experienced racing, so that managed to get me across the finish line. All in all very happy with my time and performance I gave my all and battled for every mile Looking forward to what ever comes next. Massive Thanks to everyone supporting”.
Jonny Murphy (20037)
