Sunday 18th July from the club. 09.30am start, so please be there for 09.00am. Bring a bike and a helmet .

For those who don’t know, this is an annual bit of fun:

It’s a handicapped race with the slower runners off first. The 1st run is 2 miles multi terrain, the bike leg is 4.5 miles on the road and then its the same run again.

Transition area is by Dathan’s gate.

Afterwards, Richard and Debbie Beaumont have once again kindly offered to host the traditional post race barbeque, please bring a bottle or 2, and some food to BBQ.

Start time for the BBQ is 1.00pm onwards.

Last Sunday saw an excellent local event at Marsden, taking in many of the local roads and paths us Melthamers should know so well from training.  And this local knowledge paid off for Rob James, as he took his maiden race victory in Meltham colours, completing the 10mile course in a fantastic time of 1hr 6mins 37secs, with a winning margin of over 7 minutes.  Andy Beardsley also powered round the course in 3rd and Graham Sykes finishing 2 and a half minutes behind in 5th.  There was further domination in the female category, with Penny Ditchfield coming home as the first female, and Hayley Lomas in second, five minutes later.  Full results are here.

15 runners from Meltham Athletic Club traveled north to compete in the Edinburgh Marathon and Half Marathon events at the end of May.

The marathon loops round the city taking in sights such as Arthur’s Seat and Holyrood Palace before heading for the coast at Portabella.  It then follows the coast south turning at Gosford House to follow the same route back up the coast to finish in Musselburgh racecourse.

5 members competed in the Marathon, unfortunately on the hottest Sunday in the year so far, but plentiful water stations and kindly locals with hosepipes helped to cool runners down.  Graham Sykes was the only male Meltham runner, competing with his daughter Mel Sykes less than a month after he ran the London Marathon.  Both Graham and Mel finished in a very respectable 3 hours 51 mintutes, 19 seconds.  The other three meltham runners were competing in their first marathon and all  finished in good times for their first attempt at this distance. Their times were as follows: Ruth Thomas 4:14:22, Helen-Marie Kruger 4:20:13 and Helen Hunter 4:34:57.

Andy Whitworth of Meltham had a fantastic run in the half marathon event to be the first male veteran over 40 with a time of 1:17:01.  John Hobbs was the first male veteran over 60 with a time of 1:33:01 and Jeff Taylor was first male veteran over 70 with a time of 1:52:43.  Fiona McArthur was the second female veteran over 55 in 1:53:44 and Pam Combes was 6^th lady veteran over 55 in 1:59:42.

Other Meltham runners in the half marathon were Richard Beaumont, 1:40:54; Pete Hirst, 1:50:35; Martin Sturdy, 1:56:03 and for the ladies Anne Tinsdeal, 2:01:50 and Sharon Whitworth, 2:08:40.

Edinburgh Finishers 2010

The details for the Meltham AC Club Summer Handicap have been finalised.  The annual event will take place on Tuesday 11th May.  All club runners wanting to run should congregate on Mean Lane below the club for a 7.30pm start.  The course will be approx 4.5miles long with some traditionally biased handicapping.  The club will be laying on some food at the end so we hope to see a healthy crowd participating.

The Summer Handicap, departing from the Community Sports Centre