Road Runners tackled a variety of top races during busy weekend.

*Carla Green (*far right on the podium) at the Chester Metric Marathon after her tremendous run to finish as 3rd female and age cat winner.

Road Runners tackled a variety of top races during busy weekend...London, Cardiff, Chester, plus cross country etc.

Report by Don Hale.

 

Plenty of North Wales Road Runners took part in a wide variety of races last weekend during one of the busiest times of the year which involved several fixture clashes and attracted some bumper entries.

NWRRC members travelled to compete in marathons in London and Chester, together with the Chester Metric race, the Cardiff half-marathon, the season’s first cross country at Bangor, and the Conwy parkrun.

The most popular event however for NWRRC club runners was the Chester Metric Marathon race with six members competing over this unusual and very challenging distance. 

Martin Green and his wife Carla were the star runners yet again, with Martin claiming a 4th place finish overall at the Metric Marathon, and he also won his MV45 age cat amongst a quality field of nearly 1,000 experienced athletes. Martin’s impressive time of 1 hour 34 minutes and 39 seconds was just twelve-seconds adrift of his third placed rival.

Carla Green (*pictured above) though took all the plaudits this week following her tremendous display in this same Metric Marathonevent, and she also won her FV50 age cat with another determined effort as the 3rd female finisher and in 30th place overall in 1.53.02, and she was delighted to climb upon the podium and break her two-hour target. 

*Iwan Evans (*above) enjoyed another good run at the Chester Metric Marathon.

Iwan Evans also ran well to finish in 43rd place overall in 1.58.15, and Nicola Wylie despite a few injury niggles continued with her fine form in 369th place and the 97th female runner in 2.36.46, and Helen Hannam turned in another gritty performance to finish in 456th place and the 150th female in 2.45.13.

*Helen Hannam (*above left) with Nicola Wylie at the Chester Metric race.

Mandy Owen though seemed slightly disappointed with her result in 588th place in 2,59.27, adding: “My slowest Metric so far. I just wanted to get the miles in the old legs and to collect my triple medal for the Chester 10k and half-marathon.”

*Pictured above - Mandy Owen's impressive triple medal from Chester, and (*below) Mandy in action during a recent race.

The Chester Metric Marathon race was won by Gavin Tomlinson (Chorlton Runners) in 1.29.13, with James Meader (Derby AC) 2nd in 1.33.41, and David Morris (City of Stoke) 3rd in 1.34.27. The Ladies race was won by Lindsay Fisher (West Cheshire) in 1.47.29, and Kate Wells (Telford AC) was 2nd in 1.50.08, with Carla Green 3rd in 1.53.03.

*London Marathon: Steve Bozier and Kelly Alford joined more than 40,000 runners at the London Marathon last Sunday and Steve recorded an excellent time of 3 hours and 31 minutes but admitted to a few problems enroute.

He explained: “I massively dropped the pace after half-way because I thought I was out of time to get a good for age time again, and to save it for the Snowdon Marathon in four-weeks’ time, but that last half was still really hard and painful. I still got my second fastest marathon but with the right training I can do much better!”

*Steve Bozier (*above) is pictured at the London Marathon.

Kelly Marie Alford ran in her special bright yellow charity costume but later admitted that she had picked up a bug and unfortunately couldn’t shake it off, adding: “It was also a mega hot-day, and I was in my costume, so I was melting, and I was struggling from mile 9.” Despite her problems Kelly bravely battled on and finished her run in a very respectable time of 4 hours 48 minutes.

*Kelly Marie Alford (*above) in her colourful costume at the London Marathon.

*Chester Marathon: Jamie Tharme took part in the Chester Marathon on Sunday and was pleased with his time of 3.42.40 to finish in 772nd place amongst more than 3,000 starters.

*Jamie Tharme (*above) had another good run at the Chester Marathon.

*Cardiff half-marathon: Cheryl Frost celebrated with another superb PB and a great run at the Cardiff half-marathon, but she was slightly annoyed by the delay in starting with 12,896 runners called forward in waves, which provided some confusing gun times. 

Despite this handicap Cheryl still claimed a very good chip time of 1.42.04 in 199th place. Afterwards she confirmed: “We started in waves, so it was at least ten-minutes difference, hence the awful gun time. I was quite happy in the end though with my PB.”

*Cheryl Frost (*above) was pleased with her run and a new PB at Cardiff.