Race Report – Swinton Half Marathon - By Garry Baines

What a day for Mary-Anne as she won the Ladies Section of the undulating Swinton Half Marathon on Sunday. Having recovered from recent injury, Sunday’s race saw a rapid return to form for a delighted Mary-Anne as she crossed the line in 1hr 28:12.
Two other ladies A&T ladies, Michelle Fairclough and Vanessa Thomson completed the race.

In the Men’s Section we had 14 entrants, some of whom were carrying injuries.
The best performance came from Peter Chan who finished 2nd in the V45 category in a time of 1hr 19:52. Simon Ford kept the pressure on him with a time of 1hr 21:13 and Salford-based Alan Steeple was the third A&T finisher in 1hr 23:44.
It would appear that Paul Mannion kept Mary-Anne company for much of the time as he went for a jog round the course in 1:28:21.
Malc Collins and Rufus Bennett renewed their tussle from the Rufford 10km with Malc just getting the nod on this occasion by 3 seconds in 1hr: 29:02.
Alan Hilton got a rollicking from his Captain for taking an unscheduled pee-break at 11miles. Al lost some momentum and despite trying to catch up again eventually finished 9 seconds behind the said Captain, who was extremely pleased with his PB of 1:33:35. At long last the Captain also managed to finish in front of Terry Gardiner who also took away a PB in 1:34:39. It must be said that Terry had given his all (encouraged from the sidelines by the same Captain) in Saturday’s Cross Country Race.
It was good to see Craig Little and Steve Eldridge back in competition although lack of fitness probably took its toll on both of them.
Mark Fairhurst made his half marathon debut and turned in a solid performance to record 1:38:24.
Pete Mulleady, another Cross Country runner from Saturday, struggled with injury.
Mark Crowley got more mileage and more long-distance experience under his belt in preparation for his 2010 marathon.
But the story of the day belongs to Craig Bradbury. We know that Craig has been also struggling with fitness recently. However after 10miles or so he got a touch of the stomach cramps and, bent over, continued walking only to wrap himself around a lamp-post, sustaining cuts to his eye and face. With blood streaming he managed to find assistance from the local Constabulary and eventually made it back to the finish where the St.John’s Ambulance Brigade got to work on him – that made their day but perhaps not Craig’s!

To end on a positive note, the overall result enabled the men to capture first spot in the Central Lancs Grand Prix with one race to go. Your club needs you at Gin Pit!!