Kenilworth Runners member Laurence Copeland travelled to Manchester to join many other athletes in one of the biggest and most prestigious road races in the North of England.
With 1,353 runners finishing this is one of the big running events.
The race started from the Commonwealth Games Stadium, which sits like a giant flying saucer in the middle of this urban area of East Manchester,
and took runners on two and a half laps of the surrounding streets, ending back where it started on the world-class athletics track in front of a grandstand full of families and friends.
The race was very efficiently organised by the Manchester YMCA in aid of the Cystic Fibrosis Trust, complete with electronic timing chips on the back of numbers, a full set of kilometre markers on the course, plentiful drinks stations and a well-stocked goody bag with a jazzy tee-shirt for all finishers. This year’s race started at 9.30 am on a mild grey morning with the threat of rain, which, for once, did not materialise. The runners wended their way around a more or less flat course completely closed to traffic between the local gasworks and a modern “sculpture”, both of which added character to this City race.
Laurence, who has been in very good form of late, turned in another splendid performance to finish in 54 minutes and 20 seconds and in 701st position.
29/06/06
Roger's Railway - Handicap
Taking a break from the intensive competition of the Summer Race series which is at its half way mark a group of members and their guests met at Crackley Lane Railway Bridge to take part in the annual race up and down the disused railway line known to club members as ‘Rogers Railway Race’, named after Roger Wilkes, Chairman and Race Organiser, who first proposed the challenge.
The course could not be simpler as it goes from Crackley Lane Bridge over the bridge at Hollis Lane and then directly up the track to a point about half a mile from Cromwell lane Bridge where Pam Wilkes stood at the two and half mile mark to turn the runners around and direct them back to the start at Crackley Lane Bridge.
The men’s handicap was won by Richard Greenhalf
and the ladies by Mary Joyce.
| Name |
Predicted Time |
Actual Time |
Difference |
| Richard Greenhalf |
36.15 |
35.04 |
-1.11 |
| Paul Davies |
45.26 |
44.19 |
-1.07 |
| Paul Murphy |
36.10 |
36.32 |
0.32 |
| Andrew Holbrook |
30.00 |
30.32 |
0.32 |
| Mick Morris |
43.49 |
44.35 |
0.46 |
| Tom Dable |
37.24 |
38.08 |
0.46 |
| Roland Smythe |
32.51 |
33.39 |
0.48 |
| Philip McCorquodale |
31.16 |
32.04 |
0.48 |
| Richard Steel |
30.41 |
32.15 |
1.34 |
| Ivan Holdsworth |
31.07 |
33.49 |
2.42 |
| Mary Joyce |
36.34 |
39.22 |
2.48 |
| Pauline Dable |
42.36 |
45.27 |
2.51 |
| Jane Mc Nally |
42.04 |
45.03 |
2.59 |
Thursday 1st June