From Jill Ezard and Nicola Budding…
Photo credit Alistair Nash
Podium success and some awe inspiring feats of endurance at home and abroad.
It seems that the spring Bank Holiday put an actual spring in the step of Ilkley Harriers this week with some fantastic performances and achievements. The week’s racing started early, with two younger Harriers heading to Lancashire on Tuesday to take on the Mearley Clough Fell race in the Pendle hills: At 3.5miles and 1247 ft of climb this is a tough challenge. Oscar Shinn was the first Harrier over the line in a fantastic fourth place and first U23 in 35:22, with George Whittlestone finishing in 41:38 and sixth U23.
Hot on the heels of his success at the Ilkley Trail race, Jack Cummings lined up for the Apperley Bridge Canter on Thursday evening. This challenging, multi-terrain 10(ish)k starts and finishes at Woodhouse Grove School and winds through scenic trails and backroads of Apperley Bridge and Horsforth. Jack put in a dominant performance to take the win in 35:06, over three minutes ahead of the second place finisher. David Singleton and Matt Snow were the next Harriers over the line in 51:18 and 52:35 respectively. Louise Nash had a superb run crossing the line in just under the hour in 59:29, taking third place in her age category.
Meanwhile in Switzerland, Jack Wood was taking part in the Auffahrtslauf St Gallen half Marathon, a series of runs to mark Ascension Day. The route starts and finishes at the largest football stadium in Eastern Switzerland – the St. Gallen Stadium, taking participants on a tour of the city and back. Jack well and truly flew the red and green flag for Harriers taking the win in a blistering 1:13:58.
And even further afield on Thursday, Harrier Dr Shaunna Burke took on an inspiring challenge: the Tenzing Hillary Everest marathon, the highest marathon in the world. Starting from Everest Base Camp at 5356m above sea level where participants camp before the race to acclimatise, the race ends at Namche Bazar, at 3440m. Although the race is mostly downhill, it is not for the faint-hearted with technical trails requiring cautious descending! Shaunna, who had previously climbed Everest 20 years ago, was taking on the challenge to raise money for Macmillan Cancer Support having been diagnosed with incurable cancer last year. She completed the race in 20th place in a breathtaking time of 7:41:38m, the fourth non-Nepali woman to cross the line.
And the long distance successes didn’t stop there. On Saturday, Petra Bijsterveld set out on the Hardmoors 110 mile race: Starting on the coast in Filey, participants have only 36 hours to complete the race, following the Cleveland Heritage coastline visiting Scarborough, Robin Hood’s Bay, Dracula’s Whitby, Staithes, Runswick Bay and Saltburn, before passing through the Cleveland Hills and across the North York Moors to finish in Helmsley. Petra, continuing her run of form on these events, completed well within the cut off time in 34:26:21, one of only 12 women to complete the challenge.
At the OMM Lite Mountain Marathon in Grasmere, four Harriers took on the two day navigational challenge in less than ideal, claggy conditions. Participants can choose from one or two day events, long course and short courses, and run as solos or in pairs. In each case there are checkpoints placed around the course that, having been given a map only at the start line and with no planning time, participants have to find as many as possible to accumulate points, making sure to be back at the start within the cut off time. With an odd choice for birthday celebrations, Jann Smith and Jane McCarthy entered as a team in the two day long course. After a navigational glitch on day one and a resultant time penalty, day two proved much more successful seeing the pair coming 19th overall and taking third vets place! Meanwhile, John and Sarah Hayes entered the two day short course route, with John finishing 15th overall and sixth vet and Sarah and her team mate finishing as 46th vets.
In contrast, in an event taking, hopefully, far less navigational skill, Alistair Nash spent 12 hours running round a 400m race track in Manchester to see how many loops he could do! Clearly with less views to distract him, Ali had a fantastic run completing 261 laps, or 104.4km/64.9miles, taking fourth place overall.
And back to events that more of us could conceive of entering, on Sunday four Senior and twelve Junior Harriers took to the fells in the latest race on the BOFRA calendar at Kettlewell. The seniors route sounds innocuous at only 1.4miles but with 600ft of climb and a narrow gully to get through this is no easy run out. Sam Bentham continued to show his skill on the fells taking first place overall and first MU23 in 11:43, with Gawain Moore coming in 17th in 14:27 and taking third place in his age category. Iain Gibbons was second in his age category in 15:01 and George Whittlestone completed the race in 16:00. Tackling races of different lengths for each age category the juniors had some great runs: In the U9s, Archie Hallworth was fourth and Martha Prior eighth; U12s, Michael Moore took to the podium in third with Isobel Moore in eighth, and Lottie and Esme Prior in 18th and 29th respectively; U14s, Max Brett was seventh with Robert Brooks eighth; and in the U17s, Joseph Bentham was on the podium in third with Oscar Shinn in fourth. Well done to all the juniors that represented the club.
Finally for the race calendar, in a route with decidedly less hills, four Harriers took on the Epilepsy Action Bradford 10k also on Sunday. The route this year was the flattest to date and took runners through the beautiful new pedestrianised streets of Bradford City Centre, out and back on Canal Road to finish at City Hall. In another case of “I’ll have what he’s having”, Jack Cummings topped his already stellar week with not only the win but a new course record of 30:47! Rob and Carole Cunningham were next over the line in 40:11 and 59:25 respectively with Carole comfortably in the top ten for her age category. Amanda Newham also had a great run completing the race in 1:05:59. Well done to all!
Our parkrunners were out in force with over 40 taking part in one of the weekly times 5k events this weekend. Notable personal achievements include: Superb age gradings for Geoff Howard, Alison Bennett (both 85.69%), Mark Hall (88.87%), and Hilda Coulsey (81.81%); and first three finishes for Claire McLoughlin, James Lee, James Horrex, Steve Coy, and Samesh Chotai. A great turnout for these fun and free events which are open to everyone.