Mark in top five V45’s at Lakesman – Matt does a double Marathon – Matthew gets selcted for Lancashire – First four Places at Trawden Junior Race

Jun 28, 2021

The Lakesman full distance triathlon consists of a 2.4 mile open water swim, a 112 mile bike ride, finished off with a marathon (26.2 miles) and it was this race that Mark Taylor chose to make his debut as a Blackburn Harrier – hardly one for the faint hearted. Mark who is a V45 had a very good day placing 5th in the Vet category 45-49 (35 in total) and 37th place overall.

RESULTS

After the event, Mark gave the Harriers an insight to his day – “This was my second race at this event and this distance but disaster almost struck the day before the race when a paddle in Derwentwater to check the temperature resulted in a deep cut under my big toe from a sharp stone…I used my medical training to simply ignore the flow of blood for the rest of the day!

The swim is my weakest discipline and I was relieved that at the 6.30am start the lake was calm and I was happy to get round the 3800m course in 1 hour 15 mins which I would have taken beforehand given the lack of swim time over the last year. On the 112 mile bike leg the wind was blowing in the ‘wrong direction’ meaning that the usually fast coastal section of the ride was really hard work in addition to the hillier sections at either end, but I did it 5 hours 48 mins and still felt fairly good.

The marathon course consists of 5 laps around Keswick and by this time the weather was very hot and sunny, and people who had finished the half distance race were now out enjoying beers. Laps 1 and 2 were fairly uneventful (other than realising that the cut on my toe really was quite sore!) by lap 3 my pace was dropping, pain increasing and the heat was becoming a real issue. A dousing with water and ‘a good talk to myself’ in a portaloo later things came to again on the final two laps and I finished the run in just under 3 hours 45 mins, 22nd fastest on the day.

With transitions added my total time was 10 hours 58 mins, placing me 38th overall and 5th in my age category, a result I would have snapped your hand off for and a decent start to my racing as a Blackburn Harrier. Lakesman is a truly brilliant event and it felt ‘normal’ even with the covid precautions, and my entry is already in for 2022.”

 

 

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Race To The King – 19/20th June

Blackburn Harriers Matt Wood – organiser of all those RunThrough Races up and down the country – has been getting his own legs moving and like Mark decided recently to go long – really long.

RESULTS

One Marathon would have been enough, but Matt decided on two as he ran the race from Goodwood to Winchester – a total of 54 miles. Out of over a 1000 runners, Matt came home in 258th place with a total time of 11hr 38.46 and quipped “Came 250th out of 1000ish but I was in around 50th place at over half way. Body fell apart and ended up walking for like 20 miles”.

Word has it that he has approached Blackburn Harriers Road Relay Team Manager to see if he can run a Long Leg in the September Road Relays at Redcar!!

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ESSA North West Regional Combined Events – Telford
Matthew Smith was competing for Lancashire for the first time on the track in the Regional Combined Events at the weekend and had a pretty good day considering he’s just been out of isolation from having Covid.
The competition consisted of five events – 80m Hurdles; Shot Putt; Long Jump; High Jump and 800m as the final event. He kicked off with a 15.0 second run in the 80m Hurdles, threw 6.76m in the Shot Putt, set himself a new PB in the Long Jump with his leap of 4.80m, cleared 1.68m in the High Jump and clocked 2.24.3 in the 800m.
On the day Matthew placed 6th overall with a total of 1976 points and recorded the best performance of the day in High Jump and was 2nd in the 800m, the winner, being the only one running faster. Pretty good day alround, especially after receiving the news that he has been selected for the High Jump at the English Schools Championships – the fourth Blackburn Harrier to be selected this year, the others being Matthew Heywood, Matthew Ramsden and Abigail Stratton.
 
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Trawden 7 – Sunday June 27th

The senior race featured two hundred and eight seven finishers with the race being won by unattached Thomas Hodgson in a time of 41.56.4 with Rossendale’s Stephen Corbishley in 2nd (42.37.5) and Bury’s Andrew Mellor in 3rd place (42.44.4).  Blackburn Harriers Ryan Bradshaw, in training for Hebdon Brook had a good run too coming hom in 9th spot clocking 44.38.3.

In the Junior Race U13, U15, and U17 athletes all ran together over the same distance – fifty three in total – 14 of them being Blackburn Harriers youngsters. The first four places were all taken by Blackburn Harriers also having six out of the first ten, which was a great performance.

RESULTS

First home was U15 Daniel Smith clocking 12.52 with U17 Isabel Holt in second place just three seconds behind in a time of 12.55. U15 Oliver Gill placed 3rd to complete a clean sweep of the top three places as he ran 13.05.1 with U13 Oliver Brown in 4th spot clocking 13.07.6. U13 Theo Robinson crossed the finishing line in 6th spot in 13.39.4 followed by U15 Matthew Smith – not fresh from his outing at the Regional Combined Events the day before – in 9th position (14.25.2).

U13 Callum Singleton made it seven Harriers in the top 20 places as he finished in 14th place running a time of 15.17.5 followed by U13 Agatha Taylor in 21st (15.49.7), Paige Singleton (22nd) running 16.01.9 with sister Ellie Singleton in 24th (16.07.1). U15 Imogen Robinson ran a time of 16.37.2 in 30th spot, followed by U13 Loucas Lancashire in 35th (17.28.2), U13 Katie Lawson (42nd) with a time of 18.12.1 and U13 Charlotte Smith in 46th position in a time of 18.55.6 despite in reality being an U11 for all other events.

Callum Singleton (208)

 

Oliver Brown (252)

 

Daniel Smith (213) – Isabel Holt (233) – Oliver Brown (252)

 

Oliver Gill (253) – Isabel Holt (233) – Oliver Brown (252)

 

Daniel Smith (213) – Isabel Holt (233) – Oliver Gill (253)

 

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