THE GREAT MANCHESTER RUN saw tens of thousands of runners racing 10 kilometres around Manchester, including several members of Rochdale Harriers.

First home from the Club was David Bentley.  His time was down on recent years but he still put in respectable performance, posting 40 min 49 sec.

Rochdale’s first lady finisher was mother-of-three Anna Blomfield.  Only four days after competing in the Blackstone Edge fell race, she had a tremendous run on the roads of Manchester.  She finished as 47^th lady overall from a total of over 40,000 runners.  Her time of 41 min 42 sec was faster than several lady athletes in the elite section of the race. Anna commented

“I’m still in a state of disbelief! There was a yellow zone for fast Club runners in front of my section and I passed loads of them. I felt good all the way round but started to fade in the final quarter of a mile”.

Anna also won the female veteran 50 category.  Currently she holds the 14^th fastest 10K time of the year in the UK for her age (40 min 12 sec, Trafford 10K).

Results for members of Rochdale Harriers in the Manchester 10K were as follows:

David Bentley 40:49; Anna Blomfield 41:42; Nikki Green 54:59;   Dawn Parry 1:02:23; Karen Conduit 01:02:48;  Julie Cragg 01:04:25; and Ian Barton 01:07:44.