Today for the fourth year running, the team provided standby rescue cover for this years Rivington Half Marathon and Marathon event. Organised by 2:09 Events, the race enjoyed its fourth year in Rivington, with the route starting at Rivington & Blackrod School.
In fact the Marathon route part of todays event was new to this year, and because of the larger number of entrants and much larger course, this year the team concentrated only on providing standby rescue cover, rather than also undertaking some marshal duties as in previous years.
The start of the half marathon
This year an army of volunteers undertook the marshal and check point duties, from Burnden Running Club, Chorley Football Club, various Rotary Groups and many individual helpers.
The Half Marathon route took in a course heading up to White Coppice and back, with the full Marathon Course following the Half Marathon Course with additional stages over Rivington Moor, Smithills Moor, in the south, and Wheelton Moor and Heapey Moor in the north.
The team initially met at our Ladybridge Hall Base / HQ at 07.45hrs, with twenty two Call Out list members attending and three Support Group members present (Thanks to Laura Tunnicliffe, Sarah Hindle and Maggie Allred)
All four team Land Rover Mountain Rescue Ambulances were deployed at points around the days course, along with our Minibus Ambulance.
The Marathon Event started at 08.30hrs with 64x entrants taking part, with the Half Marathon Event commencing at 10.00hrs with 317x entrants taking part.
Thankfully given the very wet weather of recent weeks (Months!) the days sunny skies, yes we really did see blue skies, gave for good running conditions, though underfoot the going was still very wet.
As usual the team dealt with a small number of retirements transporting various runners back to the finish location.
We also dealt with four incidents, all separately detailed under Incident 70-2012.
As both the Half Marathon and Marathon Events were concluding, we received a call out from NWAS (Manchester) to a mountain bike incident in Philips Park, Prestwich, and nine members deployed to this from Rivington. (See Incident 71-2012)
This years events finished within the ‘chop time’ of mid afternoon, with all members present returning to our Ladybridge Hall Base / HQ to restock up and replenish medical sundries used on this event.
The Bolton MRT is very happy to be associated and assist with this annual event and looks forward to full involvement in the 2013 2:09 Events Rivington Half Marathon and Full Marathon Events.
