17 A&T Runners made the trip to snowy Blackpool for the North West Half Marathon. I don’t think any of us were expecting the generous coating of snow that was presented to us on the day, and after a few texts and phone calls (one of which woke our road captain up rather early) Garry Baines finally confirmed the race would go ahead, albeit with a bit of snow underfoot.
As expected, this was a well organised and well supported event with nearly 900 hardy runners starting the race. After the standard A&T handshakes we were off to a bit of a slushy start, but all got away incident free. Unfortunately Wayne Babynec pulled up with what looked like a pulled hamstring after a couple of miles. We all hope he makes a speedy recovery from that one and is back racing again soon. All in all it was a fantastic achievement from all the group and a number of new PB’s were set, with a number of people knocking several minutes off their previous bests. Scott Cristie was the first runner home in 1:22:00, hot on his heels was Gary Atherton crossing in 1:25:06, knocking 9 minutes off his previous best. I think there is more to come from Gary this season! He was closely followed by Steve Coleman in ever consistent form only 8 seconds behind. Next was Mark Lysycia posting 1:29:46. John Hyde, making his A&T racing debut crossed in 1:32:23 showing good signs for London and was followed by Dan Reason who finished with a great PB of 1:32:50, smashing 5 minutes off his best time. A tired Garry Baines was next home in 1:37:27 with a combination of skiing, après-ski and generally living like a king for a week catching up. Yours truly was next home in 1:40:31 knocking nearly 8 minutes off my time at 4 villages. Steve Eldridge was the next A&T runner home with Ray Taylor hot on his heels, with a fantastic 1:41:12 and yet another PB for the day, followed by Derek Coop. Carole Baines showed that a weeks skiing was no reason not to post a PB and finished with 1:43:52 (obviously not been as indulgent as some) with Sue Fletcher in pursuit, showing good form in preparation for the marathon finishing in 1:44:20. The other Babynec (Denise) finished in 2:09:50. Some of the credit for that has to go to daughter Laura for the morale support on the long runs, albeit on the push bike along side Mum. Paul Lees, coming back from injury showed he is on the road to recovery with 2:09:58 and a big well done to the Fiona Saunders and Helen Minshall completing their first half marathon in 2:09:50 and 2:12:51 respectively.
By the end of the race the sun was out, the snow was gone and we all wondered what all the palaver had been about a few hours earlier. Most of the group enjoyed some typical A&T celebrations afterwards and all went out for a well earned Ruby to swap stories of the days events. My sympathy to Dan who had to go to the Trafford Centre for some late afternoon shopping.
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