The long, hard, winter was well and truly launched this weekend with a host of endurance events held amidst miserable drizzle and rain.  Forty club members took off for the now well established and popular bi-annual training weekend, this time in Wales rather than the Lake District. Of those who stayed at home, several ensured one of the club's best results in the Manchester University relays and more endured the inclement weather to participate in the Chester and Liverpool marathons whilst even more ran other of the region's races.

The 45^th Manchester Relays, held on Wythenshawe's University Training Fields often used as a club training venue, combined the athletic prowess of youthful academia with the wise experience of maturer club runners.

Emily Beedham, Emma-Leigh Heighway and Hannah Griffiths were the rays of sunshine on the drizzly afternoon. Back in form following long lay-off-s, they combined with Donna Riding, to finish 7^th and produce the club's best result for a decade with deputizing team manager Emily running some thirty seconds faster than in 2008 and Hannah fifteen seconds faster than in 2009 proving yet again that rest benefits performance.

Thanks to the stalwart work of deputizing team manager James Bailey, the men also produced some of the club's best results for years. These relays are traditionally used as early winter training so a relatively small group took several stages and managed to complete an unprecedented four teams. The 'A' team finished an impressive 6^th, with the results of the B, C & D teams as good as has ever been produced in these relays.

Simon Mills (isn't it great to have him back?), Niall Brooks and James Bailey all ran three stages of the 2.1 mile laps, blasting the first with their fastest times (11.59, 10.59 and 10.59 respectively) followed by two slightly slower 'threshold' sessions. It was great to also have George Kirk and Peter Crawford back after their prolonged injuries. Both took two stages and, again, their faster times were on the first stage - 12.57 and 12.41 (resp.).

Those who ran one stage were Dan Bradford (11.24), Ian Weatherall (11.34) (just back from a 10k in Oslo), Elton Davies (12.38), Gary Rowlinson (12.23), Simon Horsfield (11.38), Alistair Kell (13.33) and Brian Bradshaw (16.07). Elton & Gary were the only two of this group who'd previously run this course and all the newcomers agreed how 'very satisfied' they were with their performances.

Birmingham University have dominated this event for years in both men's and women's races and this year was no exception, winning the top two men's positions and all three women's places. 

MARATHONS

The following day twelve took part in the Chester Marathon. First home was James Lewis in a fantastic time of 2:53.51. Even more impressively, he ran negative splits with a 1:26.52 second half that was four minutes faster than he ran in Wilmslow. Ultra distance maestro Colin Gell, who'd already raced a 50k, 40 miles, 20 miles and a 32 miles race this year on top of 2:52.49 in the Wolverhampton Marathon in September, has got to be pleased with with 2:52.49 against that background. Lee Woods' 3:09.35 was two minutes faster than he did in London. With a best HM this year of 1:23 (Kassel), his 1:27.55 half-way was sensible pacing but the wheel's, it seems, came off in the second half (1:41.41) , probably the result of lack of distance from prolonged injury this year. Running his debut marathon James Ketley, did well to record 3:17.40 with negative splits, considering he'd only run two short races as preparation this year. With a 3:23.25 Ambleside marathon in May, Simon Jackson will be thrilled to record a PB of 3:20.21. With a 1:25 in the Blackpool HM in September, he can expect to go even faster.

This was Anthony Brookes fifth marathon and his 3:21.55 his slowest to date. The best performance of the day was Chris Cook who knocked a massive fifty minutes of his PB to record 3:30.30. He finished just one second ahead of ultra-distance maestro Tim Rainey who, even for tough-as-nails Tim, who'd already run three marathons this year with a host of other ultra and shorter races and just a few weeks after a fine 3:13.11 performances in the Wolverhampton Marathon, this may have been one marathon too far for Tim. He finished a discouraged 3:31.10. Take a rest, Tim! Richard Horwood braved the distance and made his debut on minimum training to record 4:32.36 and Jonathan Hardman, with just one HM behind him from last November, found it tough to finish in 4:40.55. Finally, Gary Evans (4:59.46) and Gabby Evans (5:18.13) both deserve special medals for enduring the distance and remaining on their feet for such a long time. Well done.

In Liverpool, Katie Reece was the sole club representative in the Liverpool marathon. With a background of several recent ultra-distance Fell races and battling against wind and rain, she again displayed all of her feline true grit to finish in 4:09.18, only a couple of minutes off her PB.

Finally, Steven Townley ran a PB of 1:25.21 in the Congleton HM, an improvement of twenty seconds on the Macclesfield HM (September) and 1:28 in the Wilmslow HM