THE Winter Warmer 10K hosted by Blackburn Road Runners struggled to live up to its name last weekend with possibly one of the coldest days so far this year paving the way for freezing fog and damp conditions.

With little potential for a personal best times participants were also sadly robbed of the spectacular views the course has to offer.

After two laps of the track the course deviated immediately into a 440ft climb over 1.7 miles followed by a two-mile coast back down only to climb again up to Pleasington Priory before following a flat course back to base.

Phil Eccleston, who usually favours longer distances, took time out for a rare 10k appearance, using the race for some pre-marathon fine tuning.

Just one day after claiming victory at the Bolton parkrun with a new personal best of 18mins 14secs, Eccleston romped home to a 10th position in a time of 37:01.

Eccleston, somewhat shocked at the amount of elevation, was delighted with his performance and, whilst not complacent, feels strong for the forthcoming assault on his marathon personal best of 2:49:07.

With just one major race remaining before marathon day, Eccleston looks in a strong position to bring times tumbling at the Great North West Half Marathon in Blackpool later this month.

There was further success for the ladies with Paula Pilling continuing her winning streak with a category win in her first race as a female over-40, and third female overall with a time of 43:09, an impressive 30 seconds short of her personal best recorded on the flat Windmill 10k course at Lytham last autumn.

New member Ady Merritt is proving a strong addition to the team with an impressive 44:40, and Craig Philpot recorded yet another PB by almost a minute with a strong 46:45.

Elsewhere, new member Nicola Hardy tackled the popular fast and flat Mad Dog 10k at Southport with a respectable 1:02:01 and Keith Thomas took his weekly trip to Appley Bridge for the Endurance Store time trial, completing the 5.4-mile Power of Grayskull course with 550ft of climb in 40:00, beating his previous time on the same course by 1:26

Meanwhile, entries are slightly up on the same stage last year for Burnden's fifth annual club race, the Trotters 5, on Sunday, March 1.

Part of the Central Lancs Grand Prix the race limit 500 and it is hoped it can continue its increasing popularity on the local running scene by beating last year's figure of 292 starters and the record of 311 two years ago.