Lowe Takes 3rd Place at Lytham St. Annes 10-miler

A windy weekend saw a few hardy Horwich Harriers out and about. Alex Lowe tackled the Lytham St. Annes 10-mile road race which, as most events on the Fylde Coast tend to be, is a fast course if the wind stays away. It didn’t this time, but this didn’t stop Lowe from breezing into third position in a fine 57:13. He was joined by the ever-willing Ian Hamer, who got around in a solid 1:25:51.

Off the tarmac and onto the mud, the weekend saw the Northern Athletics Cross Country Championships in Pontefract where a small team of Harriers competed in various age groups. Ben Essex-Crosby was the sole representative in the around 3.1km U13s race, consisting of two shorter laps, and came over the line solidly in the middle of the pack in 12:54. The U15s also faced a two-lap course, but these totalled around 4.1km. Ava Winstanley was the fastest Horwich runner home in a creditable 18:03, Isobel Reid was less than a minute behind, and Millie Reid finished in 20:22.

The U17s faced two laps which were longer again, coming to 4.9km, where Jessica Taylor and Emily Hyder both came in the top half of the field, Jessica in 20:18 and Emily 35 seconds and eight places further back in a hard-fought 20:53. Emma Bradley finished in 26:44 in the 5.7km junior women’s race. Janet Rashleigh produced more of her class winning the F60 age group over the 8.2km senior ladies’ course in 41:44 and Adrian Bramham nearly matched her feat in the V60 12.2km senior men’s course but had to settle for second in 50:57. Sam Fairhurst was fastest senior home for Horwich in 45:21 and Chris Essex-Crosby ran 54:46.

Quite a few Harriers took in the various parkruns, and comfortably the furthest away from home was Abigail Cox who took on the New Farm parkrun in Brisbane, Australia and finished in 27:25 on an out-and-back riverside course. Tony Hesketh clocked up his 300th parkrun at Heaton Park the previous weekend in 28:42. Isaac Battye went down to Hillsborough parkrun in Sheffield in the shadows of the famous stadium and came second in 16:13.

Other Harriers were more local as Graham Schofield handed in his barcode after 23:09 at Burnley and Grace Freary blasted around Heaton Park in 21:15. The Middletons could be spotted in Burnage where Jason clocked 24:56 and Janet ran 35:12, whilst the Seddons started at Stretford with Robert finishing in 17:51 and Mark breaking the 25-minute mark by one second. Paul Murray went around Witton’s hilly route in 44:28, Danny Hope stormed around Sale Water in 19:27, Andrew Storey pressed through Peel in 26:21 and five Harriers hurried through Haigh where Richard O’Reilly came in first in 21:09, Paul Willcockson did 22:35, Chris Charnley ran 23:14, Lawrence Pinnell made it home in 31:42 and Emma Lucey ran 33:32