Race Report by Gareth:
A golly gargantuan gathering of 21 members of the green army grappled the glorious Garstang Gallop yesterday. Right that’s enough alliteration, on with the race report!
Again a fantastic turnout, up from a very respectable 14 last year, we made up a big proportion of the field of 153.
This is a good test of early season form over the seldom raced distance of 7 miles, on undulating county lanes round the back of Garstang. It’s a very picturesque route with some great scenery on offer. Starting in the middle of Garstang in front of the Royal Oak pub, you don’t often get a race briefing on a roundabout in a town centre but it seems to work! A lovely fast downhill start with a few uphills thrown in sets the tone for the first half of the race then it flattens out for a couple of miles before a bit of a stinger in mile 6 followed by a downhill/flat last mile with a random detour around a housing estate thrown in and a finish alongside the rugby pitches of Garstang Sports Club.
Yet again some outstanding running from Lostockers. Paul Edwards flew around the course for a fantastic 9th place finish, followed by speedsters Janet who was 4th female & 1st FV55 👏👏👏, Antony & Philip had a battle royal and were separated by only 2 seconds and Greg chalked up a huge 4 minute improvement on last years time 👊👊. Hazel was another improver on last year’s time with another super impressive performance.
The nature of the course meant you could see the battles unfolding in front of you really well, Chris set off strongly but I could see Paul Lacey running really strongly and slowly reeling him in before passing him at 3 miles and opening up a lead before Chris battled back to take him in the last mile.
Johanna and myself, both someway short of our best at the moment ran together for the first couple of miles before Jo opened up a 10 meter gap which stayed the same all the way to the finish. Andy and me then had a good old tussle for a few miles, changing places regularly, both coughing and spluttering all the way, we made the quiet country air sound like a doctor’s waiting room 🤣, I finally shook Andy off after 5 miles and was left to snot bomb in peace for a bit lol.
Andy, Sally & Brian all finished strongly within a few seconds of each other. Massive shout out to Sally for backing up the day after the Stan Bradshaw fell race, that took some dedication and effort, I almost believe her when she said she’s never racing again 😜🤣.
Jason followed up on Saturday’s parkrun PB with a great effort, another great Lostock battle was just behind him with Beverley finishing strongly to pip Terri by a couple of seconds. Rachel enjoyed a chilled out, comfortable run following a hard week & George & Douglas, looking every inch like father and son 😜🤣, finished together with big smiles. Gillian Baker come home arms aloft showing she gets stronger and stronger with each race & a massive shout out to Gillian Caldwell for another FV70 win and all round great race 💚🖤.
Lostock results below, less Dougie who mustn’t have been a member when entering the race.
Well done everyone 👊👊.
