FLEETWOOD HALF MARATHON,
Sunday, 20 August 2017.
Over the course of the season, the Northowram Pumas’ Club Championship has and will take in many of the best – and handiest – local races on the circuit, varying in mileage. Sunday saw the latest round where points were up for grabs, a merry jaunt of 13.1 miles around that near and familiar seaport town that is…Fleetwood!
Yes, you’ve read that right – Fleetwood, just above Blackpool, some seventy miles away on the west coast. Which probably explains why only three Pumas set their alarms for an unearthly hour to be ready to leave at 6.30am (on a Sunday!) so that they could prep themselves well for the 10.00am start. Personally, I’d give the three amigos Tim Brook, Jane Cole and Helen Jackson maximum points each for making the effort – and that’s before they’ve even started running the half marathon.
Organised by Fylde Coast Runners, the runners set off from the registration point at Beach Road Car Park, Rossall Point on the outer seawall walkway. The route promises grand views over Morecambe Bay as it winds its way along the sea coast along Fleetwood’s Outer Promenade and Esplanade. Initially sending the runners up the coast, the route passes the Model Yacht Pond and Marine Hall before veering right and doubling back to take the long stretch of The Esplanade. This turns onto Laidler’s Way, which then runs into Princes Way with the Irish Sea on the runners’ right. As the competitors pick up Marine Parade, they begin the first of two four-mile loops which comprise the promenade, left up Westbourne Road, then along the A587 Broadway passing Rossall School, then left at the seven-pronged roundabout down Chatsworth Avenue to pick up the promenade once more. Upon completion of the second loop, the runners then head back in a north-easterly direction along Princes Way with Fleetwood Golf Course on the left. Rejoining Laidler’s Way, they take a left to circumnavigate the Model Yacht Pond before finally turning for the finish in the field behind where they started.
Tim Brook may have run longer distances, but this was his first proper half marathon event, and he seemingly breezed it, being #FPH in 1hr 27:29.3, and finishing 21st out of a field of 548 finishers. Impressive, eh? There’s no truth in the rumour that Tim, who drove the team over, when asked how he found the course, replied, “I took junction three off the M55,” though he did go on record as describing the route as “dull”!
Jane Cole, who ran 1hr 56:28 at the Manchester Half Marathon last October, pushed herself all the way to run a super-duper sub 1hr fifty, officially recorded as 1hr 49:07.4. Her reaction was understandable: “Absolutely over the moon!” She had until this point kept quiet about a niggling Achilles problem which caused her some grief, so her time was even more remarkable.
And what of Helen Jackson, a runner whose availability was in doubt until the eve of the race? She’s been suffering with a ‘glute’ problem (look it up) but having being strapped up, dared to finish the race. She started well enough and was comfortably running sub-ten-minute mile pace over the first eight only for her injury to reoccur and slow her down considerably. Her eleventh mile was run in 11 mins 21. But she picked up the pace over the last mile to finish (in some considerable pain) in 2hrs 11:42.0.
A word for other runners familiar to us; husband and wife team Paul and Jenny Hopkinson were running in the colours of Halifax Harriers, with Paul taking the domestic honours, finishing in 1hr 39:16.2 with Jenny home in 1hr 43:12.8.
There were problems with some of the chip times, but this eagle-eyed reporter had noted them as they came in; later, the results showed just the finishing times, and these are shown below, alongside the positions;
21 Tim Brook 1hr 27:29.3
90 Paul Hopkinson 1hr 39:27.1
118 Jenny Hopkinson 1hr 43:12.8
181 Jane Cole 1hr 49:18.3
390 Helen Jackson 2hr 11:52.9.
