#clickyourclock on your weekend result
Did you race this weekend? Many of the results are now in. Make sure you #clickyourclock on yours before 12 o' clock tomorrow to be in with a chance of winning a Polar FT4 heart rate monitor!
From those results that are in, the biggest races, last week, were:
Ealing Half Marathon - 4,672 finishers
Windsor Half Marathon - 4,039 finishers
Cheltenham Half Marathon - 3,234 finishers
Morrisons Great Yorkshire Run 10K - 2,954 finishers
Baxters Loch Ness Marathon - 2,413 finishers
Baxters River Ness 10K - 2,106 finishers
The sun shone on pretty much every event in the UK last weekend, helping to provide Festival atmospheres with runners enjoying the lovely conditions in the race and then staying to socialise with fellow-runners afterwards. There were top performances and reduced handicap scores too.
Alice Braham (handicap 7.2) finished first British female behind Teresiah Omosa, from Kenya, at the Ealing Half Marathon in 78:55 and took a whopping 5.5 from her handicap score! Alice had stopped racing in 2008 when she became a mum but is now back into it and has put in four performances this year. If she clicks her clock, she may well go into the lead in the competition!
At the Windsor Half Marathon, Toby Lambert (handicap -3.9) was the first British runner to finish and 2nd in the race. He took 0.1 off his score for his 72:08 clocking in this race that was given an SSS of 2.2. Behind him, in 3rd, was Alexander Miller (handicap -1.8) who took 0.3 off his score for his time of 73:20
Ian Williams (handicap -3.1) was first across the line at the Cheltenham Half Marathon and took 0.1 off his score for his time of 70:27 on the course that was given a relatively good SSS of 0.8.
Lauren Howarth (handicap -0.4) was the first female at the Morrisons Great Yorkshire Run 10k and ran a great race to take 0.1 from her score for her time of 33:49.
Record-breaker Megan Crawford (handicap 1.1) was in exuberant mood after winning the women’s title in the Baxters Loch Ness marathon and taking 0.1 from her score . The Fife AC runner completed the scenic Highland course in a time of 2hrs 44min 50secs to obliterate the previous women’s record of 2:46:10 set by Central AC’s Jenn Wetton (handicap 2.3) last year when Crawford finished 15secs behind in second position.
Crawford, who also pocketed the Scottish title for the second time in three years, was ecstatic with the result. She said: “I love this marathon. It’s definitely one of my favourites and I was actually having fun out there. One of my main motivations for doing it was to try to win the Scottish title again and I’ve done that so I’m very happy."
Tarus Elly (handicap -2.7), who returned from visiting family and friends in Kenya four days earlier, won the men’s race for the second time in three years. The tall African, who has been living in Hyde for a number of years, was only a few seconds outside his best time when sprinting home in 2:25:19 and this also took 0.1 from his score.
Elly said: “I spent a month at my old home at Eldoret in Kenya and only got back on Thursday so I’ve not at much time to get acclimatised to being back here. When I was in KenyaI didn’t train as much as I planned because I spent a lot of time visiting people. But I’m pleased with my run today. This is one of my favourite races so I always like to do it. When I first came her two years ago I won and last year I was third."
Neil Renault (handicap -4.5) took early control of proceedings in the Baxters River Ness 10km and went on to win comfortably in 30min 33secs. He also took 0.1 from his score.
Renault, who slept in a local campsite the night before the race, was satisfied with his performance and was delighted to win the title for the first time. He said: “I felt quite sluggish in the first 5km as I think it took me a while to unfold after sleeping in a tent, but after that I got into my stride and was able to run the second half of the race quicker than the first.
“I’m pleased with the time as it’s quicker than I did last year. The course is tougher than it might seem so it’s pleasing to get such a decent time. It sets me up for next week when I’ll be doing the Great Scottish Run half marathon in Glasgow.”
Shona McIntosh (handicap 0.9) maintained her love affair with Inverness races by winning the women’s title in the Baxters River Ness 10km. It’s the second major success the Hunters Bog Trotters club member has enjoyed in the Highland capital this year following her victory in the Inverness half marathon in March. Shona took 0.2 from her score with her time of 35:17 and finished seven secs ahead of former European junior 1500m champion Morag MacLarty (handicap 2.1) who took a good 0.5 from her score while Aberdeen AAC’s Nicola Gauld (handicap 1.7) sprinted past Central AC’s Fiona Thompson (handicap 1.6) over the closing stages to take third spot by one sec in 35:38 and a reduction in handicap score of 0.1.
McIntosh, who won the Scottish 10km title at Stirling a fortnight earlier, said:”There was a pack of four of us for quite a while and I think it was beyond the halfway point before I realised I’d opened a little gap. Morag was always quite close behind, however, and I think if it had gone on much longer it might have been a different outcome. But I’m pleased to win. My time is similar to what I ran at Stirling, but Invernessis a tougher course so this was a better run.”
Ethan Fiore (handicap 8.4) is currently leading this week's #clickyourclock competition after making a 12.82% improvement at the Morrisons Great Yorkshire Junior Run 2.5k.
The competition isn't over until 12 o' clock tomorrow though and some of you have yet to #clickyourclock. Did you improve your % score by more than Ethan? #clickyourclock before 12 o' clock tomorrow when the competition finishes for this week!