Three Harriers made the trip along the M62 (and M61 and M6 if you’re interested) to take part in the final event of the Road Championships for this year.
It was a cold start, not helped by some dampness in the air as we all gathered in the grounds of Myerscough College for the start of this 10 mile race. There was a good contingent of Yorkshire teams, particularly Halifax Harriers that had lots of runners out in the Lancashire countryside. You could overhear runners debating (with themselves and others) whether to wear long or short (both top and bottom half) and so, choices made we made our way to the start line to one side of the car park. After a few brief announcements and applause for the marshals the Race Director counted us down and the mass start was away.
A short loop around the college, taking care not to trip on the numerous speed bumps, took us out onto the road and off we went along flat rural roads towards the village of Inskip. The route looped there and after seven miles we found ourselves back on the outbound road towards the college. Another short loop round the campus took us to the finish line at a Garmin measured 9.99 miles.
The race was well organised with two water stations and plenty of marshals. Whilst the route wasn’t traffic free, there were few cars about and they all gave us plenty of room. The race was advertised as flat and a good PB course. Well, it was flat ! The men’s race was won by Nathan Jones from Cardiff AAC in 52:04 and the ladies by Debra Crook from Liverpool in 1:03:21.
The Harriers results were:
1st Kevin Dessoy 1:10:26
2nd Bob Dickinson 1:15:01
3rd Nicky Ottaway 1:18:24
An excellent morning’s racing and one to recommend for anyone fancying the half-way house between 10k and a half marathon
