Consistency Rules

In sport consistency is King (or Queen). In team sports most particular, "if only we were consistent" or "we are frustratingly inconsistent" are phrases most commonly heard as your football team follows up a brilliant 3-1 away win with an annoyingly frustrating 2-0 home defeat to some no-hopers. Of course, this is only ever a half-truth. Consistency is good if its a positive consistency, ie - winning. No-one has ever sat back with a smug smile delighted with the consistency shown as your team slumps to a seventh defeat in a row. No, it's derision and fury rolling down from the stands instead. Where is all this rambling going? Well this year, in our eighth race that sees us reach the two-thirds point of the LRRL season we've had consistency in our races. The bad kind though - we've currently got a 100% record of every race suffering from some issue that's either nearly killed it to death, or required a lot of work from individuals to sort. Some of these issues are well known, others less so, but let it not be known that there are many unnamed individuals across the whole scene who have worked tirelessly through these issues this year to ensure races take place. Fingers crossed for a smoother final third of the season. Making it eight out of eight for 2026 with this race was the unwelcome news that emergency gas works were required slap bang in the middle of the race route in Huncote, works which take precedence for road closures over our already arranged one for racing. Hence the repeated race entry delays whilst Huncote patiently waited for works to commence to see whether the race could be held safely whilst enormous holes were opened up in the road. Where there's a will there's a way, and Huncote Harriers made sure the pavement was still safely accessible for 800 entrants to thunder through just past the 2-mile mark of the race. This allowed consistency of the good kind to reign supreme - Matt Scarsbrook of Badgers taking his seventh win from seven races entered this year, a clear win registering a time of under 26 minutes, 50 seconds ahead of his nearest rival George Seymour from Wreake Runners. Stirling Green of host club Huncote Harriers took his maiden LRRL podium finish just 5 seconds behind Seymour. Continuing the consistency of the good kind, Claire Frankland of West End Runners took her fourth win from four attempts for the season, finishing in 28:04, over a minute and a half ahead of her nearest rival in Abi Wheelhouse from Charnwood AC in 29:40. Ashleigh Howells of Birstall RC took third place in 30:03.

The Joy Cann 5 always sees a bumper field and this edition was no different, seeing 729 finishers in the draft results (441M, 288F). Well done to the Harriers for delivering another successful event, and thanks must also be given to the wider running community who were able to join the volunteering ranks to marshal the event as the works required extra resourcing this year. As always, queries on the draft results must be sent to lrrlresults@gmail.com, preferably as soon as possible, and we will aim to have the final results and league tables published by the middle of next week. Top 10 Male Finishers:-

1. Matt Scarsbrook (Badgers) - 25:53

2. George Seymour (Wreake Runners) - 26:43

3. Stirling Green (Huncote Harriers) - 26:48

4. Tom Hansen (Stilton Striders) - 26:59

5. Sam Martin (Poplar RC) - 27:13

6. Ben Darlow (West End Runners) - 27:20

7. Andrew Quigley (West End Runners) - 27:23

8. Ryan Preece (Badgers) - 27:28

9. Neil James (OWLS) - 27:34

10. Luke Ingram (OWLS) - 27:36

Top 10 Female Finishers:-

1. Claire Frankland (West End Runners) - 28:04

2. Abi Wheelhouse (Charnwood AC) - 29:40

3. Ashleigh Howells (Birstall RC) - 30:03

4. Ysabel Drewett (OWLS) - 30:36

5. Amy Pizzorno (Birstall RC) - 30:38

6. Charlie Nurse (West End Runners) - 30:58

7. Lizzie Borrajo (Wreake Runners) - 31:30

8. Katie Burney (Huncote Harriers) - 31:43

9. Rachel Haddon (Hinckley RC) - 31:46

10. Nicola Stevenson (Poplar RC) - 32:25