Nigel's Weekly Roundup - bumper edition!

After the Bury 10K was postponed, race action was a bit thin on the ground in the middle of the month, but we do have some highlights from the second half of September.

Week commencing 5th September:

Up at the Great North Run we had at least 12 Rams rattling their clagg around the streets of Newcastle.

Well done to Rosie Cummings, Luke Everitt, Helen Binns, Richard Hanson, Gareth Bradshaw, Steph Twomey, Isaac Cox, Victoria Beard, Andrew Nattrass, Bev Dobson, Gary Young and Martin Harrison.

On the same day Adrian Booth took on the Mersey Tunnel 10K.

There were also some super long-distance achievements by Sarah Clarke and Eve Hart at the 47-mile Lap of Windermere and of course, Rowan Ardill’s six day run/walk/scramble down the spine of Wales in the lifetime challenge that is the Montane Dragon’s Back.

At parkrun we had representatives at 20 different events with our longest traveller being Lee Entwistle at Forfar.

Heaton parkrun saw the usual good turnout with a fantastic 18:03 finish by Paul Marshall.

Andrew Hill was in Bangor for Penrhyn parkrun, Paul Jenkins continued his tour at Halifax and Sam Booth (f) travelled to Liverpool.

Paula Pilling, Andrea Sidebottom and Alan Blagburn headed for the hills at Watergrove parkrun.

At Bolton there was a fantastic performance by Ben Bescoby who was 4th finisher in 20:22.

Sacha Cooper arrived at Fleetwood on foot from Blackpool with fiancé Tony Coyne who isn’t an RRC member, but his 18 mins first finisher achievement must be worth a mention for those who know him.

Marissa McPhillips and Adam Traynor laid down times in the club championship run at Peel in Salford as did James Thomas and Richard Thatcher at Pendle.

Week commencing 19th September:

It was a record-breaking one in Berlin on 25th September, but could he do it on a cold Saturday in Burnley up on’t’ moor? Probably, with more appropriate footwear.

The final race in our club fell championships was the Thieveley Pike Fell Race, a short but steep AS fell race from the aptly named Ram pub at Cliviger.

The race starts in what was advertised as a 'boggy field', but the dry summer and beautiful autumn morning meant that this was yet another of this year’s fell races held in the most benign of conditions. As a club race it works very well being only 6.5K but it comes with a couple of serious uphill challenges before and after the Pike itself. There’s hardly any flat land and the race rewards climbing power and downhill bravery in equal measure.

The few Rams who took part enjoyed the route and the views from the top of hill, but there were a couple of navigation errors close to the finish where the organisers could have done better in what was advertised as a waymarked event.

That’s now a wrap for Fell Races but the 2023 champs will start again in the new year with a healthy mix of distance and difficulty.

Well done and thank you to everyone who took part this year and to Bev Walker and Catherine Shield for the race selection.

Elsewhere the Warrington Half Marathon attracted a remarkable number of club members. Amy Ardill, Nidya Arunkumar, Sacha Cooper, Diane Ford, Lee Ford, Andrew Norman, Sean Potter, Andrea Sidebottom and Katy Whitwell (one week before her next London Marathon) all took part.

Richard Hanson and Emma Bates ran in the Sir Titus Trot. A Grim Up North regular trail run around Saltaire, making use of the restored canal towpaths.

Rammy rocked up at thirteen different parkruns on Saturday with a sub-20-minute finish at Watergrove by Ian Douglas catching the eye. Anyone who has run the trails at Watergrove knows what an achievement this is!

At Pendle,RRC Juniors runner Olivia Carmichael finished one second in front of Dad, Matthew (ed’s note: he tells us this was not for want of trying to beat her!) and was the 3rd female finisher, and there was another impressive time from Paul Marshall at Heaton who was the second runner home.

Elsewhere Ben Knight and Stephen Yates were touring at Rothwell in Leeds and regular tourist Alan Blagburn was at the University Parks parkrun in Oxford.

Congratulations to everyone who ran, walked or jogged any distance over the last few weeks.