Fast times by Road Runners at Lake Vyrnwy half-marathon…and Llyr stars at Bilbao Duathlon

Fast times by Road Runners at Lake Vyrnwy half-marathon.

Report by Don Hale.

Nine Road Runners tackled the revised Lake Vyrnwy half-marathon last Sunday with many athletes amongst the 800 plus entrants celebrating superb times in near perfect conditions.

Endurance star John Dalzell was the first club man home in 122nd place in 1 hour 28 minutes and 36 seconds, closely followed by Stuart Culverhouse, who was thrilled to go sub-90 minutes after his 37th attempt, finally finishing in 125th place in 1.28.47.

Ben Hudson also had a good run out and finished in 158th place in 1.32.33, but his wife Sarah Hudson was the outstanding star of the team knocking an amazing nine-minutes off her previous best time. Sarah later admitted that she had been trying for ages to dip under 1.45, and said she was “over the moon” about this result.

Nicola Wylie was another runner in top-form, and said she was “buzzing” after her finishing time of 1.45.15 in 305th place overall, which included an eight-minute PB from her last half-marathon at Wrexham; and Kelly Marie Alford said she found the race hard but still finished well in 1.53.18 to claim 426th place.

Meanwhile, veteran Kevin Higgins continues to improve with every race, and he finished in 454th place in 1.55.02, whilst it was good to see Mandy Owen back in club colours again, and she recorded a time of 2.11.40 in 641st place, with colleague Sue Smith running home in 744th place in 2.27.06.

 *The race was won by Nigel Martin (Sale Harriers) in 1.05.54, with Callum Rowlinson (Salford Harriers) 2nd in 1.06.00, and Andrew Davies (Stockport AC) 3rd in 1.07.44. The 1st female runner was Alison Lavender (Oswestry Olympians) in 1-18.07.

https://results.sporthive.com/events/6972882776687163648/races/483216

Great debut for Llyr at Bilbao Duathlon.

Llyr ApGeraint-Roberts made his debut in the Bilbao Duathlon last Saturday and finished 14th at the top end of his MV45-49 in 1 hour 10 minutes and 29 seconds overall, and 89th out of 204 male athletes. The event included a 5k run followed by 20k bike ride and a further 2.7k final dash.

He later commented: “It was a tough course with 6km of the bike ride up a hill. I held my own across the disciplines, so I’ll take that in my first one. Roll on next year.”