From Jill Ezard…
End of season fun at fell relay event
The weeks started with one of the highlights of the fell racing calendar – the Hodgson Brothers Mountain Relay. Set in the heart of the Lake District Fells, the race takes place every year on the first weekend in October, and is competed by around 70 teams from across the country. It is the longest-running mountain relay in the country. It’s a tough race with four legs, each competed in pairs and including hard climbs and steep descents on difficult terrain. The route requires navigation so fell experience is a must. Two Harriers’ teams took on the challenge this year – an open (O) and a mixed vets (MV) team.
In Leg one, a 6.7km/440m route from Patterdale to Hartsop, Finn Maxwell and Paul Castle (O) led the team out finishing in 47:33, while Sacha Jones and David Norris (MV) handed over to Leg two in 56:26. Kate Archer and Nick Kealey (MV) took over the reins climbing 890m over 11km up to High Street and on to Kirkstone pass in 1:30:42. Also on Leg two Gawain Moore and Dave Robson, climbed a couple of places completing the leg in 1:25:58. On Leg three, a 7.5km.570m route from Kirkstone Hartsop Hall via Red Screes and Dove Crag, Iain Gibbons and Steve Gott (MV) kept the team within sight of a top 20 placing completing the leg in 1:10:50 with Alison Weston and John Marsham (O) completed the leg in 1:15:48. It was all to play for in the final leg, a tough 11 km / 900 m route up to Fairfield and back down to the finish via St Sunday Crag. Katie and Ed Poulter (MV) had a great final leg gaining one place finishing in 1:37:24, taking the team to fifth place overall. Oli Murphy and Forrest Hamilton (O) had a superb last leg gaining three places for the team enabling them to finish in the top 20. They completed the final leg in 1:18:34. Well done to everyone for representing the club in such a prestigious event.
Also off road at the weekend Rumana Chowdhury was the sole Harrier taking part in the Kielder Marathon weekend. Participants can take on a full circuit of Kielder Water or take part in the Half Marathon or 10k events. Rumana chose to run in the half marathon, a point to point route around the southern end of the reservoir with 275m of elevation, completing it in a great time of 2:16:41.
The rest of the weeks action was on the road. Three Harriers ventured to Manchester to take on the Half Marathon. Starting and finishing at Old Trafford the route takes participants on a fast and flat course out to Sale and back. With over 25000 participants it promised to be a well-supported and lively event. Phil Joyner was the first Harrier over the line in 1:31:40 followed closely by Steve Newell in 1:32:26, securing an impressive 12th position in his age category. Marie Watson was the only female Harrier to take part and completed the event in an impressive 1:43:53.
Closer to home in Morley, Jonathan Nelson was the only Harrier to take part in the 10k race on Sunday. This is a closed road course around the historic streets of Morley, two out and back sections with a few “slopes” and a three way crossing at the new infamous ‘Morley Bottoms’. Jonathan completed the event in under an hour in 59:24.
Further afield Sue, and Marc Westerman travelled to Crete for the 10k and half marathon races respectively. Despite arriving to some of the worst storms and floods the islands have seen and a year’s worth of rain in just a few days, the events continued. Sue completed the 10k in 1:07:11 and Marc took 10th place in his age category completing the half marathon in1:52:43.
And finally, over 40 Harriers took part in the 22nd anniversary parkruns this week with some impressive achievements: Jonathan Turner, Andrew Smith, Hattie O’Looney and Sarah Marsden all recorded parkrun event PBs; there were impressive age gradings for Geoff Howard (89.43%) and Samesh Chotai (82.23%); and an impressive 13 Harriers finished in the first ten in their events – Heidi Hoad, Harry Brook-Dobson, Maddie Morris, Samesh Chotai, Emma Moore, Kyle Bethell, Jonathan Turner, Helen Thurston, Jaysson Sawyer, Robert Cunningham, James Horrex, Sam Angus, and Steve Coy. Well done to everyone who took part.