25 Harriers Run a Marathon and 10 Run at Yorkshire Three Peaks, April 2025

The runners of Rochdale Harriers were out in force at the UK’s two biggest marathons on Sunday 27th April 2025, with 25 club members taking on the physical and mental challenge of 26.2 miles.

The London Marathon is one of the Big 6 Marathons, where the world’s elite runners share the same streets as enthusiastic amateurs, with thousands of spectators lining the streets to cheer on participants along the famous route which takes participants through the heart of London, passing the historic landmarks of the Tower of London, Big Ben and Buckingham Palace,

Representing Rochdale amongst the 56,000, record-setting, runners in the capital were David Bentley, who clocked 3:38:05, Abdul Wadud with 3:58:26, Jennie Ransome at 4:09:51, Ian Stainthorpe 4:42:07, Kay Bentley 4:57:39 and Sadaf Saeed 5:11:38.

Closer to home, the consistently growing Manchester Marathon also took place on Sunday, attracting over 25,000 runners and thousands of spectators to the City centre.

The event is developing a reputation as a fast and flat route with a big atmosphere. Starting in the city centre and heading south towards Old Trafford, runners then loop through various neighborhoods, including Stretford and Sale, head out towards Altrincham before working their way back towards the City with the final stretch to finish at the bottom of Deansgate.

Congratulations to the 19 Harriers who completed the race as follows;

Danny Bennett 2:53:24, Abdul Shahid 3:26:16, Phil Lockett 3:30:22, Michael Jackson 3:45:43, Gareth Bright 3:53:18, Bruno Rolinha 3:54:19, Peter Levers 4:03:36, Elliot Whalley 4:05:21, David Bull 4:07:49, Kurtis Vincent 4:15:38, Gary Marshall 4:24:41, Daniel Fenwick 4:33:14, Louise Mayall 4:33:55, Andrew Whitehouse 4:33:55, Corina Haynes 4:34:19, Tahir Ali 4:43:30, Jack Liddle 5:39:23, Linh Hoang 5:49:30, Samantha Fretwell 5:58:26.

On Saturday 26th April the 70th running of the Yorkshire Three Peaks race was held with five Harriers taking on the approximate 24 mile route ticking off the iconic peaks of Pen-y-ghent, Whernside, and Ingleborough registering well over 5000ft of elevation in a true gruller of a race, only evidenced by the 127 competitors who DNFd (did not finish).

Of the 618 race finishers, Jake Warwick was the first Rochdale vest back, 169th after 4:23:31, followed by John Bramwell 216th in 4:33:52 with Kay Welsby 235th (26th female) in a time of 4:38:24. Lee Meadowcroft completed the race after 5:04:14 in 404th and Jonny Lawlor was 534th with 5:26:24.

To mark the 70th running of the race a new three point relay was also run on the route alongside the main race. Leg 1 started in Horton and ran approximately 12 miles to Ribblehead via Pen-y-ghent summit. Leg 2 went from Ribblehead to Chapel-le-Dale via Whernside summit over roughly five miles with Leg 3 mapping Chapel-le-Dale to Horton via Ingleborough summit over almost seven miles. 

The team of Rochdale Harriers finished 44th out of 49. Mark Walker and Emma Ball completed Leg 1 in 2:11:06, handing over to John Mayall and Nick Walsh who ran Leg 2 in 1:18:23 with Neil Eaton and Louise Eadsforth clocking 1:42:28 for Leg 3.