Haweswater Half Marathon

[Mon 7th Mar 2011] Just one week after the long trip to Pocklington for the first race in the club's Grand Prix series, members of Blyth Running Club were again on their travels, this time 29 runners and their supporters took the slightly shorter journey for the second race in the series, the Haweswater Half marathon. Starting and finishing in the small village of Bampton, a few miles from Shap, on the edge of the Lake District, the course is basically a hilly out and back affair from Bampton, along the side of Haweswater Reservoir to Mardale Head and back. Eden Runners, the organisers of the race, were once again blessed with good sunny weather although there was a cooling headwind on the outward half of the course.

Robbie was again first back for Blyth in 20th overall with a time of 1:22:22, followed by two newer members, Michael Butters with 1:23:16 for 23rd place and Sam Dodd with 1:25:13 in 32nd. First lady back for Blyth was Heather Christopher, 109th overall in 1:34:22 and some 6 minutes quicker than last year, with Susanne second back in 1:36:51.

At least three of Blyth's runners managed half marathon pb’s, very impressive running on a course with over 1600ft of ascent and descent, Dave Bradley by 2 mins, Chris Stone by 4 mins and Peter Holmback by an incredible 7 mins; what a difference a week made to Chris and Peter. Special mention to Rob Hall, whose time of 1:32:49 gave him first place in his age category. Blyth’s contingent of 29 runners was again the most from any one club taking part.

A big thanks to Robbie and Mal for driving the mini buses, which allowed the rest of us to rehydrate afterwards in the local hostelry.

Full results available at ukresults.net