Sara Ward, Nichola Unsworth, Helen Lawrenson after the Blackpool Hilton Half Marathon

With the end of the summer holiday period it was a quiet week on the Fylde for athletics while it gears up for the winter running season starting this week in earnest. Wesham had a last ditch stand at the Inter Club Fell Grand prix at the final fixture last Wednesday evening at Harrock Hill, also the fourth and final race in this series itself. Over the cross country course on 5.2 miles of track, fields and woodland with 900ft of ascent Alex Rowe was the first Wesham runner to finish in 10th place in 37:41 coming in 1st M55 and winning a basket of local fruit and vegetables. Steve Myerscough had run two of the previous races in the Harrock series and he finished 33rd in 40:06 and 6th M40. Phil Leaver cut his teeth in his first fell run although he is a regular cross country runner, and he came in 147th in 50:51 as 6th M60. Kath Hoyer in only her second race since returning after a broken shoulder was woman and 5th W50 in 185th place with 55:55. Dave Waywell at first had the best of Kath but she came past him on the final section and he finished 1st M70 for his box of veg and 187th overall in 56:03. Peter Cooke was running his first Harrock race and just made it to the start having arrived late, and he ran 57:37 to place 195th and 12th M55.

While it was a huge weekend in Blackpool with the switch on of the lights the illuminations 10k took place in the day with the lights switched off. Karl Lee finished 5th in the Saturday morning race, and he ran the 6.2 miles in 36:14, 3mins 16secs off the first placed runner. Karen Davies was 31st woman and 2nd W45 in 56:09 in 156th place overall. 249 runners took part in this race. In the half marathon on Sunday on Blackpool Promenade from the Hilton Hotel, just a week after the Fleetwood race over the same distance Graham Cunliffe took advantage of the double, finishing 61st over the 13.1 miles in a time of 1:37:48, placing 4th M55. Helen Lawrenson was in the race but does not feature on the results. Nichola Unsworth was 8th woman and 2nd W40 in 1:39:50, in 79th place. Brian Jones was 86th in 1:41:19; Sara

Ward was 15th woman and 134th in 1:48:54, 15th woman and 3rd W45. Paul Boustead was 147th in 1:51:46. There were 312 runners in this race.

The latest round of the Central Lancashire Grand Prix took place in the Pennington Flash Trail race over 5 miles round the reclaimed mining area just west of Leigh. Dave Waywell was 1st M65+ and finished 122nd in 40:35 with a great run. Kath Hoyer was 33rd woman 6th W50 and 135th in 41:30 as she returns to form after injury, and Gemma Owen was close behind in 35th place 137th overall with 41:42. Angie Kirkham was 48th and 157th in 46:47.

David Taylor ran very close to his personal best in this week’s Preston parkrun, clocking 20:19 just 9 seconds short of his previous best with 63.49% age graded performance.