We’ve had a busy two weeks, with the full mix of fell, trail, parkrun and road races.
Continuing her attack on the BOFRA junior championship, Briony Holt finished first u14 girl at Kirby Gala. This result puts her in 4th place with races in hand. Big brother Curtis Holt tried his hand at the u17 course, finishing 4th.
Race 8 of the Pendle & Burnley Grand Prix was the Burnley Boys Club 5k, where 6 juniors took part. Jordan McDonald was first junior home in 11th place out of over a hundred runners. Also running were Alex Townrow (30th) and Tom Bradley (46th). For the girls we had Alice Pier finishing 1st (and 4th lady overall), followed by Bethany Quinn 2nd (12th girl overall) and last but not least; Riaghnach Jameson finished 3rd girl in 29:02.
The Witton Park Trail Relay on Thursday 26th June was an excellent chance for some team building. This is a tough course with a long drag to the peak and a fast descent to the finish. Clayton juniors entered three teams and had some excellent results;
First Junior Team; Alex Townrow, Kenan Eti, Tom Bradley.
Second Junior Team; Ryan Clarke, George Pier, Curtis Holt.
First Junior Girls Team (and second ladies overall); Alice Pier, Ellie Root, Briony Holt.
Our Three Seasons Challenge is nearing its climax; second to last race was the Astley 
Park trail race in Chorley. Ten ran on a warm Wednesday evening with great results. Tom Bradley narrowly missed out on a race win after a sprint finish (he’s learned not to let people sit just behind him in races!) and Briony Holt took first girl. Well done to all and especially to one of our youngest runners Rachel Stevenson who had a great sprint finish. Last race in the series is this coming Wednesday 16th July at Widdop.
Cannonball Events is again running its Todmorden Park 5k races; a fast 5 lap route within the park. Thursday night was race 2 in the series and five juniors went over to compete. George Pier finished first u18, closely followed by Tom Bradley and Alex Townrow, all under 20 minutes. Alice Pier was first u18 girl in 21:03 and Dan Bradley finished in 24:41.
Lastly, Saturday 12th July saw the Orange Crew descend on Pendle Parkrun! We had 15 juniors turn up, most for their first attempt at this course. Despite a brief attempt to get himself lost, Jordan McDonald managed to stick to the plan and shadow the leading runner all the way round the course before winning the event in a parkrun personal best and new course record of 17:53. Ryan Clarke came in 6th in 20:44, followed by Jackson McKay in 7th on 20:50. Full results are on the website; some of you may have recorded new parkrun PBs but it won’t show if it’s your first attempt at this course.
Well done to Alice Pier for first lady overall and a special mention to Kaylon Cotterill who was not impressed with having to do two laps at Reservoir Bogs, It took all mum & dad’s persuasion to get him to come along to another race but he had an excellent run, hopefully he’s feeling more positive about it now!
Commiserations to two runners who had to abandon halfway round due to injury; it’s a very hard decision to make but it’s always the right one; running through an injury is a recipe for not running at all!
Well done to everyone, some superb personal and team performances!
