From Jill Ezard and Nicola Budding…
Podium dominance on road and age category success across the board!
Racing started early this week with four Harriers taking part in the popular Evensplits 5k event in Leeds. These monthly races held from February to November at the University of Leeds Brownlee Centre, provide a great opportunity to focus on your 5k and improving that over the months. Samesh Chotai set a blistering pace and finished third overall in 16:26, followed by Kyle Bethell finishing in the top 50 and fifth in his age category in 19:21. Claire Mcloughlin was the first female Harrier to finish coming third in her age category in 22:23, with Emily Butterworth just behind in 23:54. A great start to the week for the club!
On Saturday two Harriers ventured into the lakes to take part in separate races. Jean Sullivan was the sole Harrier in the Coniston 14 event. Starting and finishing in the centre of Coniston the race takes participants on a scenic hilly route round the lake, providing fantastic views of the surrounding fells. Jean had a great race completing the event in 2:01:01 and taking seventh place in her age category. Further north Dick Waddington was tacking the Coledale Horseshoe, a seemingly reasonable 13.7km race. Starting and finishing in Braithwaite near Keswick the route takes in Grizedale Pike, Crag Hill, Sail and Barrow giving it a total and therefore brutal elevation gain of nearly 1000m. In tough windy conditions Dick put in a great run completing the round in 02:04:03.
It was back to road shoes on Sunday with three Harriers taking part in the Vale of York ten mile event. With a distinct lack of hills it is a fast race on closed roads through the villages to the west of York and east of Leeds. And it was definitely a fast race for each of our three competitors. Jack Cumming had a superb outing winning the race in 51:56 over a minute faster than the second place finisher! He was joined on the podium by Matthew Thackwray in third place having come over the line in a fantastic time of 53:36. And it was wins all round as our third runner, Jaysson Sawyer took first place in his age category completing the race in 1:01:05. An impressive set of results.
Whilst road shoes were obvious for York there was the annual “road or trail shoe” debate before the Keighley 10k and 5k races on Sunday. Twelve Harriers headed over the hill to take part in the challenging events both of which follow circular routes around Keighley and take in a section of the Leeds to Liverpool canal towpath. In the 10k event, Kate Prior was the first of nine Harriers home taking second place in her age category in 45:58. Derek Oliver followed shortly behind in 46:56 taking third place in his category. And it was age category success for the third Harrier, Joanne Williamson who placed fifth with her time of 48:22. In the 5k event it was Junior Harrier Ben Richardson who led the club home in a fantastic time of 20:54 finishing fifth in his age category. Alice Hewitson, one of our jeffing (run, walk, run) group, had a superb event posting a Personal Best time of 35:11, with Carole Cunningham following closely behind in 36:29. Great representation from the club at a popular local event.
Saturday’s windy conditions didn’t deter the parkrunners this weekend with 42 Harriers taking to paths and trails across the country. Of course the ongoing inter-club parkrun league with our friends at Baildon and Saltaire may well still be having an effect. There were some fantastic achievements all round. There were loads of top ten finishes: George Whittlestone, Time Ashelford and, in a Personal Best (PB) time, Junior Harrier Michael Moore at the Chevin Forest event; Jaysson Sawyer clearly prepping for his Vale of York success at the Fountains Abbey event; Robert Carter achieving a PB at Lister Park; Alex Foyn in PB form at Mole Valley; Steve Coy at Pontefract, Tom Mountain at The Pastures; and Harry Brook-Dobson with a PB at York. The beginning of Spring had definitely put a spring in our members’ steps with event PBs being achieved by several more members: Junior Harrier Isobel Moore at Chevin Forest; Maddie Morris at Harrogate, Andrew Overend at Roberts Park, Wendy Lockwood at Skipton; and Alan Travis at Woodhouse Moor! And finally two impressive age gradings: Geoff Howard achieved a grading of 81.02% at the Myrtle event; and Hilda Coulsey hit the heady heights of 84.10% at the Skipton event. Some fantastic contributions across the board for the inter-club league! Congratulations to everyone who took part in an event.