Red Hot Toddy, 10 Mar
By Paul Alexander
The clubs own race, the Red Hot Toddy 10k lived up to its fantastic reputation on Sunday as the 182 runners took on the tough course that features a few laps of Centre Vale Park before being faced with a challenging 1.5 mile climb up to Sourhall Road. Runners are then rewarded with a long 4km descent through to the finish at the park. There were 9 Toddies in action with Jonathan Mitcham being the first club finisher as 1st v60 in 44.11 and 17th overall. Gemma Lord battled her way to 1st V50 in 56.15 but was edged out by team mate Bev Wright who ground out a very respectable 55.55 for 16th female and 5th v45.
Despite the windy weather conditions, first place Tom Collinge from Queensbury Running Club made it look easy as he crossed the finish in an exasperating 35.52, almost 1m 30s ahead of 2nd place Ben Crowther of Halifax Harriers.
Blackburn Harriers’ Pauline Powell took 1st female in 42.52 which was over 4 minutes ahead of 2nd place.
In the 1 mile fun run, consisting of 29 runners, Lennie Halstead of Todmorden Harriers made light work of the course finishing in a blistering 6 minutes 14 seconds giving him a 42 second cushion over team mate John-Paul Cash-Birks who ran an impressive 6.56 for 2nd place. Sophie Smith, also a Todmorden Harrier was the first girl to finish in 7.34, 32s ahead of team mate Elizabeth Yates who finished in a good time of 8.16. All fun runners did exceptionally well given the tough windy and cold conditions on the day.
Full Toddie Results:
17 Jonathan Mitcham 44.11; 51 Rosa Blackwell 50.16; 55 Sam Lund 50.48; 57 Simon Anderton 50.54; 59 Mark Anderton 51.00; 77 Andrew Bibby 53.11; 93 Bev Wright 55.55; 95 Gemma Lord 56.15; 173 Myra Wells 75.50.