Chorley 4.4 Mile Report by Garry Baines

On an overcast and windy evening, 30 A&T members started the Chorley 4.4 Mile Trail Race last night. Unfortunately only 29 were able to finish as Ray Taylor pulled up with a pre-cruise calf strain. Look forward to seeing photos of the A&T vest on that boat Ray.

Pride of place must go to the Ladies who came home with the team prize and enhanced our position in the CLGP standings.

Maria Lowe, making her CLGP debut for the club, stormed home to win the Ladies race, finishing 21st overall, in a blistering time of 27:43 beating the 2nd placed lady from Wesham by over a minute!

It was great to see Mary-Anne Tracey-Aguera backed on the circuit and she didn’t disappoint finishing 3rd lady overall and 2nd for A&T with 28:58. Next for A&T and 4th overall was Joanne Iborra with 29:52 making up the team who took 1st prize.

Able support came from the other lady members with Brenda (or is it Brendan) Wane running strongly for 32.42 and looking good for the Isle of Wight Marathon. Carole Baines continued her good form and crossed the line in 34.16, hotly pursued by Suzanne Gregory in 34.43, who’d had a hard day slaving over a hot oven whilst baking the “very welcome” post cakes for the team. Maybe you’ve started something Suzanne and we should have cake rota for each race – don’t fancy Paul Basnett’s Guinness cakes though.

Michelle Fuller battled hard against the undulating course and finished in 38:38 with Laura Babynec 39:18(sprint finish noted) and Sarah Sadler 39:35 tracking her down. Steering the ship home was Helen Minshall in 43:44 spurred on by the huge A&T contingent.

The Men also had a successful evening taking the runners-up spot for the team event.

Simon Ford seems to have found the perfect training formula and is increasing his pace with each race. First again for A&T he finished 6th overall in 26:08, out-stripping Paul Mannion to the line, who clocked 26:35. Pete Chan, off again to recuperate in Devon, was 3rd A&T finisher in 26:48 with Shaun Moran close by with 26:59. Gary Atherton highlighted his improvement this year, brought about by some aggressive training, by finishing 11 seconds behind Shaun in 27:11. Another Gary, of the Stevens variety, is getting stronger as the season progresses and recorded an impressive time of 28:14. Alan Hilton, perhaps hampered a little by the effects of marathon training, came home in 29:16 with Steve Coleman 29:32 and Greg Rusoce 29:38 not far behind.

Further down the field there was a race within a race. Craig Bradbury dipped under 31 minutes in 30:59 but John Lee 31:05, Mark Lysycia 31:06, Steve Foster 31:16 and yours truly 31:26 pushed him all the way. The last hill did for me and by the time I’d stopped heaving it was too late to try and catch Steve.

Ian Hamilton ran a plucky race for 33:30 and Dave Crowe looks to have overcome his injury problems, no doubt fuelled by Suzanne’s baking, to get back in 33:38. Wayne Babynec stuck to the task well for 35 minutes dead and it was great to see “Scouse” Mark Crowley racing again. Finally we have to say that Paul Basnett must have been putting in some secret speed work, the way he coasted past the guy in the Celtic shirt in the finishing straight. Recording 36:27 on that course, he is looking good for the cross-country season.

A superb turnout by the club, matched by the results on the night.

Next club race is the Leek Half Marathon on 22nd August –get your entries in if you haven’t done so already.

Next CLGP race is the Swinton 10 on the 26th September. Entry Form will be available shortly.

On Terry G's return from holiday all pictures taken last night will be available on our website.