Dave Neilands reports . . . .

A real first for Garstang Running Club was the victory of Mike Whyatt at the Kirkham 10k as this was the first big race win for a club member in the twenty plus years of the clubs existence.  Recent injury, a holiday and the hot weather were no problem for Mike who beat his closest challenger by four seconds (about twenty metres) to record a time of 33.25 minutes.  Sadly other club members were not at the finish to cheer Mike on as they were still out on the course!  Following Mike at a respectful distance was Tony Pritchard in 44th place in 40.13, Dave Heslop 64th in 41.37 and Pete Gelderd 208th in 52.25 with the 279th and final runner completing the course in 1 hour 22 minutes.

When is a 10k not a 10k? Answer – when it is a beach 10k and “due to adverse weather conditions – onshore wind caused the course to be shortened to 8k”.  The head of tourism in Blackpool will probably be pleased to know that the location will not be named as it was early September and the location is supposed to be a holiday resort!  He will also be pleased to know that his donkeys were not affected by the adverse weather and they continued to do their full route.  Mention of donkeys is of course not a prompt to inform you that in the shortened race Pete Gelderd finished 137th in 44.12 minutes and Omar Aboo 157th in 45.58 with the last of the sand blasted competitors, of which there were 209, finishing in 56.03 minutes.

Tim Warner competed in his latest marathon – the Moray Marathon in and around the Scottish city of Elgin.  In a small field of 127, and despite the hot conditions, Tim finished a very respectable 60th in 3 hours and forty five minutes. 

(11/9/06)

 

[BACK]