Sunday January 30th saw two coastal 10 mile races at Morecambe and Lytham St Annes respectively and the running gods had been kind with dry weather.
Katie Percival travelled down from her new base in the Lake District with partner and Running Mayor of Bolton Robert Short. In a pre-race interview she explained the race was part of her preparation for a marathon in 4 week’s time. Conditions looked perfect and she was hoping for a new PB after recent PB’s at 5k and 10k in the famous blue vest of Bolton Harriers. She was even hoping for a positive Strava comment from Harriers coach Dave Shaw ! She described this as the equivalent of a Hollywood handshake as Dave is not known to pass on praise lightly.
Sure enough after a very smooth run Katie cruised back in a big PB of 1 hour and 7 minutes as First Lady and 11th overall. She commented “I was happy to run on the flat in perfect weather conditions. Really pleased with the PB. I am missing training with Bolton Harriers now that I have moved house but still proud to be a member and wear the Bolton vest”.
Phil had travelled further South to Lytham St Annes and despite not feeling in the best of shape ran really well for a top 10 finish in a time of 58 minutes 55 seconds. He explained “I didn’t expect to run that well due to having a sore knee in the week building up to the race. I wore a knee compression sleeve and surprisingly didn’t feel any pain. I got carried away at the start and went off fast but I then slowed down and tried to keep the pace under 6 minute a mile from 4 mile onwards. I had ran 5.45ish pace for the first 3 miles. I managed to sustain this. The 9 mile section was very windy which resulted in a 6.09 mile but then I managed to get a sub 6 again in the 10th. I was really happy with the time. Roll on the Manchester Marathon.”
