Trail half such a big success
MORE than 400 souls braved the winter elements to participate in the the well established Stockport trail half marathon.
The course takes competitors completely off the roads thanks to the usefulness of the old railway track bed from Marple towards Bollington, returning along the Macclesfield canal to give the requisite 13+ miles of distance.
Organised by the locally based Crazy Legs running organisation, the event was led in easily by Nick Leigh of Horwich RMI Harriers to finish in a time of 1:15:43 with the added value of first veteran finish into the bargain.
Second was Richard Coen over three minutes behind in 1:18:53 with the first of the Stockport athletes being Adam Thompson, finishing in the bronze medal position in 1:19:25.
Two further Stockport athletes joined Thompson among the top ten finishers with Iain Murdoch in seventh (1:22:55) and the evergreen Charlie Batho in ninth to stop the clock in 1:24:02.
This event will be a useful precursor for those who wish to up their game and double the distance for both the Manchester and London marathons taking place next month.
First lady’s spot went to Catlin Rice of Glossopdale who kept her time below the magic 90 minutes by just two seconds to record a useful time of 1:29:58 for what was considered to be a level course, but slowed all participants down by plentiful supplies of mud at this year’s event.
Some will be back for more of the same distance at the other end of the season but this time on roads in September at the now hugely successful Hatters half marathon from Edgeley Park organised by the Stockport County Supporters Co-operative.
There was no time for picnics or canal side vistas at the annual Trafford 10 kilometre road race which attracts competitors from all parts of the country to participate.
Chris Thompson of Aldershot, Farnham and District took the winner’s spoils in 28:55, the sole competitor to sub 29 minutes.
The Sunday morning spin from the Partington Leisure Centre saw Stockport’s five times Manchester Cross Country League winner Jack Morris do battle with international athlete Andrew Davies with Morris coming out on top by just one second to finish in seventh spot in 30:02 to Davies’ 30:03.
Jack Nixon, also from Stockport, finished in 30:58 for 36th overall position out of just over 800 finishers.
Road races of a greater distance took place in Maryport, Cumbria with Stockport’s own James Scott-Buccleuch taking time out to make the journey to the fairly remote location.
He got his just reward in winning the annual Netherhall 10-mile road race in a scintillating time of 55:36 by over a minute and helped himself to the first vet’s over 35s age group category at the same time, which will help to give him great encouragement during the forthcoming busy season of road and fell races in and around Stockport and South Manchester.
The Stockport trail race and the Trafford 10k provided the opening prelude to the annual all Harriers’ race series which will see a total of twenty four events competed for over an eight month period on fell, road and trail terrains and finishing with the Langley 7 race in early November.
Those members wishing to participate should make themselves known to Harriers club member Tony Park as soon as possible.
The final Stockport Primary Schools Cross Country League will take place on Saturday (18/3) at Woodbank Stadium with a start time of 10.30am.
On Sunday (19/3) there is a choice of indoor track and field events to suit all youngsters at both Sport city, Manchester and also the last of the South Yorkshire Grand Prix meetings at Sheffield’s Institute of Sport Arena.