The dominant event of the week for SELOC was our part in staging the Liverpool Big Weekend. Our friends from DEE put on an excellent middle distance race on Saturday in the brand new area of Everton Park. Then SELOC took the lead role alongside DEE on Sunday to stage a full-distance urban race in Liverpool city centre as part of the European Cities Tour. That attracted over 300 runners, including 85 overseas entrants from 14 different countries. Thanks to tremendous work in the weeks and months beforehand by Paul Turner as planner and Caroline Barcham as organiser, backed up by support from many other club members on the day, all went well and competitors seem to have enjoyed their time in the city. Let’s hope we’ve put SELOC on the European map.

SELOC Successes

Biggest turnout of the weekend was naturally at Liverpool on Sunday as a good few members still had energy to fit in a run after finishing a long shift helping on the day. Results are on the website so won’t repeat them all here, but must mention Anna W as our only winner (on WYJ), Matt Driver in 2^nd on Elite Men and Cath Wilson taking 5^th place in WV.

Prior to that, Paul Turner had Sunday’s preparations well enough in hand to run around the heavily-contoured slopes of Everton Park and surrounding streets, where he finished in 14^th spot in MSV. John Nuttall and Steve Round both ran MUV, taking 20^th and 28^th places respectively, while Ed Mellor was 21^st in the MV class.

Elsewhere, Michael Hood elected to run in a forest on Sunday and headed to WCH’s event on Cannock Chase for a good run that saw him finish 10^th on the Blue course. The Sammon family went north on Saturday to SROC’s event in hilly Williamson Park, where Mark and Lucy ran the Green course together, finishing 28^th, but couldn’t catch “O. & J. Sammon” in 23^rd place.

Upcoming Events

SYO have the Yorkshire Champs near Barnsley this coming Sunday, 13 October, then the weekend after (20 October) PFO are at Dean Clough, near Great Harwood. Saturday events from LOC (a sprint series including Newby Bridge on 12 October), MDOC (19 October at Bramhall Park) will get things going again for some. The next in SELOC’s Saturday series is scheduled for 2 November in the Bury area, but permissions still being sorted so watch the website for details.

Others will be counting down the days until the start of SROC’s night street score league on Wednesday 23 October in Bamber Bridge, near Preston. This could turn out to be a counting event in the SELOC club league as “the most local event to the SELOC focal area” unless the 18 December event is on the far side of Leyland. Will Ed Mellor, who is organising Leyland, choose a venue further away if he gets loads of points at Bamber Bridge!!?

For juniors, the next SELOC Club League event is the British School Score Champs at nearby Heaton Park on 12 October. Maybe one of them can bag enough points to close the gap on Matt Driver, who will have extended his lead with that excellent run at Liverpool on Sunday.

SELOC also have a Tuesday series going with Age Concern Bolton, with the final short series of 3 events in Leverhulme Park starting 29 October if anyone can make it.