RADCLIFFE AC's Michelle Hincks enjoyed the dark side when she ran through the night and won a 12-hour race.

She received a medal and a voucher when she took on the Trailblazer Night Run at Townley Park, Burnley on Saturday completing 13 laps, 40 miles, of a 5k trail course.

Hincks had taken part in the solo class and was "over the moon" with her overall win, beating both the men and women.

She said setting off at 10pm it was a chilly, clear night but there was a beautiful sunrise at 3.45am.

Hincks added: "This is the first time I have been placed in a race, never mind winning one."

Elsewhere, 36 Radcliffe seniors ran the club's Joan Rhodes and Eileen Royle Memorial 5k on Sunday with eight Radcliffe juniors running the new Jim Rhodes Junior Race, named after one of the club's oldest members.

The senior race is named after his late wife and the late Radcliffe head coach Eileen Royle.

So many seniors took part because the race was part of the Central Lancs Grand Prix which the club competes in, along with other clubs, fighting for race points throughout the season. Club members also took on the organisation and marshalling.

Chris Whittaker was first home for the club in eighth position in 18mins 45secs with Craig Norman in 18th position in 19:41 and Lachlan Burke in 23rd place in 20:02.

Other results: John Gibbs – 24th – 20:03, Chris Paxton 21:05, Mike Cooke 21:32, Jenny Yates – first woman vet-50 – 21:59, Lee Cooper 22:01, Katie Percival – eighth woman – 22:06, Mark Garner (V45) 22:08, Kris Lee (V40) 22:16, John McNicholl (V50) 22:46, Nick Barnes 23:03, Dave Rushton (V50) 23:16, Steve Hamer (V60) 23:20, Stephen O'Hagan 23:34, Paul Barrington (V40) 23:51, Kate Holden (V40) 24:22, Peter Hunter 24:32, Scott Baxter 25:21, Chris Saville (V40) 26:22, Chris Fletcher 27:08, Helen Sandiford 27:15, Kirsten Cook (V55) 27:59, Vince Ashton (V45) 28:33, Zena Knowles (V40) 28:45, Grace Williams 29:54, Wayne Holden 30:06, Sarah Rushton (V45) 30:20, Karen Doherty (V45) 30:39secs, Debi Warrington 30:49, Andy Wheeler (V60) 30:58, Lacey Burke 31:57, Chris Burke 32:01, Natalie Hitchen (V40) 35:24, Iain Harris (V65) 41:16.

In the junior shorter races, which varied in distance with ages, in the under-8s Aoife Warr was first in 2:06, Tate Murphy third in 2:10, Lucas Paxman fourth in 2:12, Becky Peterkin fifth in 2:18 and Alex Baxter sixth in 2:40.

In the u11s, Harrison Saville was fourth in 5:01, Niamh Warr was sixth and first girl in 5:51 and Megan Peterkin was seventh in 5:54.

In the over-11s, Harry Andrew was first in 6:44, Noah Barrington second in 6:45 and Ryan Norman fourth in 7:47 – and all received medals.

The event also included the Northern Masters Championships and Karen Doherty was first vet-45 with Jenny Yates first vet-50. 

Lisa Carter, Fiona Lynch, Mauro Rotondi and James Hall travelled to the Lake District for the weekend to take on the tough two-day Saunders Lakeland Mountain Marathon – a navigational competition where runners could enter one of eight classes and had to carry their own gear to be safe and self-sufficient in the mountains for the two days, which included a midway campsite.

The 40th event started from Grasmere. Carter and Lynch finished 57th in their class with a total time of 16:14:00, running 19 miles the first day and 13 the second.

Rotondi and Hall, on a more difficult course, completed most of it the first day and found after seven checkpoints they were unlikely to make the course closure time so they retired and made for the campsite.

Paul Swyers also travelled to the Lakes to run the 9.6-mile Skiddaw Fell Race, starting from Fitz Park in Keswick with 3,150 feet of climbing and he clocked 1:52:00.