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Local athlete contributes to England team victory
Lancaster & Morecambe AC athlete Louise Gardner gained her first England vest at the Dunfermline half marathon on the 13th June.
The half marathon was celebrating its 25th anniversary and incorporated the first race in the Home Countries series and athletes representing England and Scotland battled it out for the team trophy.
Louise’s team mates were Sue Harrison (Leamington) and Angela Hibbs (Chester Le Street). The men’s England team were Toby Lambert (Winchester), Dave Wardle (London Irish) and Craig Hopkins (Cardiff).
The race started in wet conditions in Pittencrieff Park; the route headed out on a flat cycle track before turning off at four miles onto country roads, where runners faced a series of testing climbs, then back onto the cycle track at 9 miles to head back to finish at the park.
After a steady start Louise used her local training to work very well up the hills and began to overtake other runners who were struggling with the climbs. A strong finish placed Louise second counter for England in an excellent time of 1h.18.32, taking fifth women’s place overall.
The Home Countries Team race (the total finishing time of each country’s first two male and female finishers combined) resulted in a victory to England by almost two minutes.
Lancaster & Morecambe athlete Chris Breakell also ran in the half marathon , and did extremely well over the hilly course to record 1h.23.43, finishing 42nd out of almost 700 runners.
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