Northern Police League (Inc PSUK Championships)
Helen Leigh’s latest outing saw her contesting the National Police Service Cross Country Championships in Stockport on Wednesday February 17th, and what a run she had, finishing 3rd overall in a time of 30.28, just a minute behind the winner who is a 2.48 Marathon runner.
Full Results HERE
When you consider Helen’s training regime which is geared towards the Mountains and Ultras, this latest performance was a very good one indeed. Her racing schedule for this year is formidable and includes:
Feb – Glentress Trail Marathon in Scotland
April – Highland Fling Ultra
May – European Mountain Trial
June – Lakes Sky Ultra
Sept – Glencoe Skyline
October – Trail World Champs if Qualifying at Fling.
After the Police Championships, Helen shared her thoughts with the Club about the Race and her ambitions for this year saying “I recently represented the MoD Police at the national police cross country championships in Stockport where I was pleased to finish 3rd and gain an automatic qualifying spot for the European championships next month. My main focus for the year is attempting to qualify for the world ultra trail champs in Portugal later this year. With this step up in distance my training has not really been orientated towards fast cross country running, so I was really pleased with my performance and am looking forward to representing my force at international level”.
♦
Great North West Half-Marathon
It was pretty horrendous conditions for this years running of the Great North West Half-Marathon for the 1177 hardy souls who turned up to run the race, among which were three from Blackburn Harriers – Brian Fogarty, Claire & Jonathan Bridge.
Full Results HERE
Brian Fogarty who recently won his age group category in the Dubai 70.3 Ironman had a really good race given the conditions. The winner of the race is a 68 minute Half-Marathon runner and finished up running just under 77 minutes which gives an indication of the effects of the weather for all runners. Brian told the Club that it was “Definitely the toughest half marathon I have ever done. The conditions were awful, laughable at times with the wind and sea soaking you through..! In the end I was really happy with the run, especially with with how strong I finished after a big week of training“. Jonathan Bridge also had a good run placing 29th in 86.14 and Claire Bridge whose PB currently stands at 2.00.00 finished 617th in 2.03.04, which tends to suggest on a good day there is a new PB coming.
♦
Central Lancashire 5K
Full Results HERE
Evan Cook V65 who has been putting a lot of consistent work on the Track in training is reaping the benefits as he entered the V65 category just before Christmas. This latest Race – with 328 runners – was his fifth of 2016 and he has won his age category in everyone of them which is pretty impressive. In this race he was 74th overall and 1st V65 in a time of 20.56 (74th).
This time now puts Evan at the top of the National Rankings for 5k as well as being 6th at 10k.
♦
Park 5k Runs
At Burnley 230 runners finished the race which saw Liz Greenwood place 12th overall and 1st Female in 20.03 whilst U13 Charlotte Corrigan finished 20th in 22.04 and was 2nd Female in another good run from her. Burnley Results HERE
↓
Over at Cuerden Valley 147 runners lined up with young Daniel Brown finishing 20th in 23.16 and 2nd Junior Boy – (Results HERE)
↓
At Preston Andy Heys was among the 211 finishers in that event coming in 4th overall in a time of 19.02 – Results HERE
↓
Over at Witton Park there was a very small field of 61 runners maybe due to the fact that the Course has had to be changed temporarily due to flood damage on part of the old Course. It is hoped that this will soon be repaired and the original course re-introduced. Sean Proctor was the first Harrier home in 3rd in 20.08 followed by Mark Almond 5th in 21.09 – Mike Blacklidge 15th in 25.14 – David Billington 31st in 28.17 – 10 yr old Oliver Gill 33rd in 29.11 & Lindsay Davies 37th in 30.38. Witton Park Results HERE
♦
