Harriers Shine at the Chester Marathon
Sam Walsh, Adam MacDonald and Jonathan Jenkins raced the Chester Marathon on Sunday 5th October in conditions less than ideal; with high, gusty winds from Storm Amy still making themselves felt. Walsh ran his third fastest marathon (2:42:19) in tricky conditions. He would surely have been ruing how close his effort might have got him to his PB of 2:38:56 from Manchester a few years ago, given kinder weather. MacDonald only secured his place last minute in lieu of an injured teammate. It was a stern test for the V40, who only took up running a couple of years ago and had barely run half the 26.2-mile distance in one go before. Nevertheless, he knuckled down and trained hard in the time he had left, with a goal of going sub 3 hours 30 minutes. In the end, it wasn’t even close, with MacDonald crossing the line in 3:21:55, cheered on by his wife Helen and four children, all members at the club too. It is an auspicious debut and will set him up well for the upcoming Fell relays, where he will be anchoring the V40 men’s team, and cross-country season. Jenkins ran a solid time of 4:05:31 in his second marathon of 2025.
Whilst the UK Parkruns were blighted by a spate of cancellations due to Storm Amy, Gordon Stone was faced with a different meteorological challenge as he tackled the Singapore East Coast Parkrun. The event starts at 7:30 to escape the worst of the heat, albeit it was still 26c as Stone crossed the line in a time of 30:19, the first V70. There was a concentration of Horwich runners at Heaton, where Rob Seddon led the charge with a 19:02. Maria Lowe was next in 21:58, 3rd female finisher. Sean McMyler was a scant 22 seconds behind her. Mark Seddon (24:51) and Jason (25:05) and Janet (33:50) Middleton were also in attendance. Richard O’Reilly was flying the flag at Haigh, finishing a fine 8th in 20:42. Rob Jackson was 5th at Sale Water Park, with a time of 19:31. As ever, he was 1st in his age category and 1st in age grading.
In non-running news, Horwich RMI Harrier’s life President Stewart Westhead and Chairman Peter Ramsdale gave £1,000 to Bolton Mountain Rescue in recognition of their help and support of our club races. This year, they thankfully didn’t have to provide any assistance to ailing runners, but they were invaluable in protecting the course from an overly inquisitive herd of cows at the Coronation Trail Race.
Looking forward, there is a big weekend of racing lined up as not one, but two cross country leagues kick off on Saturday 11th. Continuing their focus on the Manchester Area League this year, Horwich will be hoping to field a strong team across the board as that league begins at Woodbank Park in Stockport. Elsewhere, the Red Rose League begins at Leigh Sports Village and the Run the Moors GP concludes at Withen’s Skyline near Haworth.
