Guys 10 - By Matt Crompton

15 A&T runners made the trip up the motorway for Sunday’s final club race to Garstang for the Guys 10. A bit of a drop in numbers from the 35 at Lostock at the start of the season, but still a good turnout given x country was on the same day.

This was a well attended race which was over subscribed and the car park, which was like a water park, certainly reflected this with spaces in short supply. The race itself was delayed by 10 minutes, which allegedly was down to waiting for the rain to slacken off (well that’s what the marshal was telling people). The race eventually started and was pretty congested until we got out of the grounds and onto the road, with a sea of runners already in the distance by the time I got to the top of the hill at the entrance.

Overall a great course in my humble opinion, nice and flat with a cracker of a view of the country virtually all the way round. I particularly liked the 2 water jumps at the 7 mile point, although my shiny new trainers will never be the same again. The course certainly was quick and the first runner home broke the course record with a time of 48:52 by Antony Ford of Sale.

1st A&T runner home was Simon Ford with a time of 57:42 placing 15th overall. Next was Steve Coleman with 1:04:16 closely followed by Rufus Bennett with another great run. If you look on the results site it shows Gary Baines as second runner home for A&T but this was an unknown ringer as Gary had a calf strain and unfortunately didn’t run. 1st lady home was Mary-Anne in 5th overall followed by Mark Lysicia, Terry Hughes, Dan Reason, Steve Eldridge and Wayne Babynec all within 5 or so minutes of each other.

Run of the day has to go to Carole Baines with 1:17:49 and 4th lady home in her category. Next were Steve Foster, Ray Taylor and yours truly followed by a very under the weather Bacon Man. Hope you’re feeling better Ian.
A special mention to Lorraine Broadhurst, who was competing in one of her first races and yet another racer from Bob’s Tuesday/Thursday stable. Well done Lorraine .