Reece leads Lions home as club Championship hots up
STAINLAND LIONS turned out in large numbers for the Red Hot Toddy 10K, race number three in the club championship.
Darren Reece was first Lion home in eighth place, with Gavin Foster close behind in tenth.
Maria Harron had a good day at the office, finishing first Lioness, winner of her age category and member of the winning Stainland Lions Ladies Team (along with Zoe Greenhow and Helen Armitage) who bagged the Ladies team prize.
Zoe and Helen also picked up age category wins for their performances, as did Martin O’Brien.
Speaking after the race, championship manager Steve Hallam commented: “A great turnout of 51 Lions made the Red Hot Toddy a fantastic representation of our club, complete with some terrific performances.”
The Saddleworth Ten Reservoirs is a challenging, high moorland route around Saddleworth Moor visiting ten local reservoirs.
Each participant has to selfnavigate around the route, visiting each checkpoint in the correct order.
The route is so tough that whisky is provided at the water stations. Andy Baird ran the course in 5:38:00, while Sandy Gee speed-walked it in 8:38:00. Andy described the route as
“brutal, with knee deep bogs, rock climbing, strong winds and snowy climbs.”
Five Lions took part in the Ian Roberts memorial fell race from Marsden Cricket Club. There was a record turnout of over 150 runners this year.
The route is 6.7 miles long with 1,200 feet of climbing mainly on moorland tracks and paths over Marsden Moor.
The race takes in Swellands Dam, Black Moss and Standedge at 1,400 feet, and features a very sharp and steep eroded drop into Butterly Clough to finish the legs off at the end.
The weather was cold and blustery but nothing like the snow-storms and blizzards from the 2019 race.
In fact, the sun came out for a short while, before a huge hailstorm arrived just in time to blitz the later runners.
David Culpan was first Lion home followed by Steve Boyer, Rikki Hammond, Aileen Baldwin and Ray Mooney. Aileen was going well near the end and aiming to overtake Steve Boyer for second spot when she lost her shoe in a bog!
Paul Patrick was the only Lion at this year’s Stan Bradshaw Pendle Round, completing the course in 1:44:29. The race is run on and around Pendle Hill, with just under 2,000 feet of climbing in 10½ miles.
Debbie Hinds finished in eighth place overall and was third lady at the Chocathlon, a short race round Marsden featuring large numbers of chocolate goodies for all participants. Debbie’s official time was 38:30.
In the Firefighters Two Up Duathlon, Tony Mott and Mark Pottinger clocked up a total time of 2:31:14 for their four mile trail run, 25 mile bike ride and second four mile trail run, while Sally MacGregor and John Rushworth finished the course in 3:37:24.
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