Lancaster University Running Club managed to excel again in the 3-1-5 festival of running, securing the senior men’s team prize for the half marathon with strong individual performances.
The 13.1 mile half marathon took a route primarily following the cycle path beside the Lune, making it fast and flat. The weather was favourable, as it was cool with virtually no wind – ideal conditions for performing well. Despite the fact that it was a new race, there was a great turnout from across Lancashire and beyond with over 100 runners taking part.
Leading the team and also the race was Phil Robertson who secured an overall win to finish in a time of 1:13:57, exceeding himself to beat his previous time by over three minutes. Tom Roethenbaugh also had a very good race to finish in 2nd place and beat his previous record by four minutes, managing a great result of 1:15:35. Despite an early fall on the wet leaves that covered much of the course, Ryan Stevenson recovered well and put in a strong performance, coming 4th and making up the final counting member of the Lancaster University team. He finished in an impressive time of 1:23:15.
Simon Couchman also performed well, finishing in 1:24:15 to take 7th place ending up just a few frustrating seconds off a personal best. Lancaster University Running Club alumnus Tom Nicholson was running for a different club but put in a great effort to finish in 11th place with a time of 1:27:55. Making his half marathon debut, Alex Patrickson pulled out an excellent time of 1:31:19, over 8 minutes faster than he predicted at the beginning of the race and crossed the line in 14th place. Nicholas Barton performed well to cross the line in 23rd place in a time of 1:34:58, shaving seven minutes off his previous time. Lea Taylor also celebrated a massive improvement taking eight minutes off her time to finish in 1:50:36 and claim 56th place.
Finally, Florian Teichmann took part in the 5k fun run beating off tough competition from lots of up-and-coming talent. He finished first in an excellent time of 17:03 beating the 10 year old in second place by over eight minutes.
This follows last week’s fun run, the 1 mile Santa dash, which helped raise money for the local charity, Cancer Care. Wearing Santa costumes and racing around Lancaster city centre provided some entertainment for Christmas shoppers whilst also supporting a good cause and brought a close to a great term of racing.
Individually, there have been some excellent performances – personal goals have been smashed through high quality training and great focus in races. It has also led to great team performances in the fiercely competitive Mid Lancs Cross Country League and success in road races, where the club has won the team prize for every race it has entered this term. As training continues through the winter months, the club looks forward to the rest of the action-packed year of racing. There will be more cross country, with particular highlights such as the BUCS Cross Country Championships, which will be held in Stirling in February before the massive sporting spectacle – Roses. In this 50th anniversary year, we anticipate welcoming York and racing them on home soil.
