All those months of hill reps, speed sessions, and track nights paid off for Radcliffe AC members last weekend as a total of 15 runners competed at the Manchester Half Marathon.

There were new personal bests and some runners completing their first ever half-marathons.

Mark Taylor was first for Radcliffe, with a new PB of 1hr 34mins 32secs, followed by Mark Williams (1:35:22), Christopher Mihalyi (1:37:54), Alex Field - also with a new PB - in 1:38:20, Emma Horner (1:40:12), Dominic Parry (1:43:48), Paul Stevens (1:50:00), Neil Naisbitt (1:52:17), Charlene Leyden (1:52:33), Sheila Jones (1:51:54), Alison Howarth (2:02:15), Sarah Wilson, competing in her first half-marathon, (2:12:20), Katherine Swithenbank, also in her first half, (2:12:21), Natalie Hitchen (2:33:41) and Sharon Peterkin in (2:44:09).

Last weekend also saw round one of the Red Rose Cross Country League, at Witton Park, in Blackburn.

Karen Doherty led the ladies home on the 5k route in a time of 32:27, followed by Elaine Bailey (35:26), Laura Aiken (35:34), Louise Shield (35:36) and Helen Kay (37:47).

In the men’s 10k, Jules Davies was first for Radcliffe in 51:18, closely followed by Mark Garner, in 52:08. Also running for the men were David Bartlett (1:03:00), Ross Calvert (1:03:33) and Peter Warr (1:06:06).

In the under-11 boys’ category at Witton Park, Clevon ran 13:46, and in the U11 girls were Grace (13:52), Skyler (16:00) and Poppy (16:19).

Aoife ran the U13 girls’ race in 19:10, and in the U15 boys’ race were Matthew (18:32), Oliver (20:54) and Stephen (21:05).

In the longer distances, RAC had two runners taking on the epic Ladybower Reservoir 52k over the weekend.

Ian Swan finished the technical 32-mile loop in 6:10:39, followed by Mia Derbyshire, in 6:26:49.

In the shorter, but no less epic, 22k loop of Ladybower Reservoir, Donna Cartwright was first for Radcliffe in 2:11:13, followed by Brennan Tighe (3:09:47), Lucie Tighe (3:09:50) and Jude Hockenhull (3:50:19).

Elsewhere, Kath Biddle ran the Hadrian’s Wall Half Marathon in 2:42:37, and much further afield, Simon Foulkes completed the world-class Chicago Marathon in 4:08:48.