From Jill Ezard…
Photo credit: Woodentops
New Year successes off road
Snow and ice may have stopped play at the weekend with both the third race in the PECO cross country series and several parkruns being cancelled, but it was still a good week for the Harriers off road and at the parkrun events that could be held.
On New Year’s Eve 13 hardy Harriers clearly wanted to see 2024 out in style, taking part in the Daleside Auld Lang Syne race. A 6.7 mile race with a challenging 1000ft of ascent, participants set off from Peniston Hill Country Park, heading up towards Top Withens, taking in the upper reaches of Ponden Clough and Stanbury Moor. Jack Cummings had a great race taking second place in an impressive time of 46:10. Martin Hartley was the second Harrier home in 55:52 followed by Thomas Mountain in 58:56. Kate Archer was the first Ilkley lady home and sixth lady overall, taking fourth place in her age category in 59:15, just pipping Paul Carman to the line in 59:20. Both Kelly Wilby and Jann Smith were in the top ten of their age categories completing the race in 1:05:26 and 1:08:26 respectively. Well done to everyone that took part and represented the club.
In a completely different challenge, John Hayes took part in The Drop, Leeds. In this event competitors are taken blindfolded by bus to an unknown location outside Leeds and, without the aid of any tech or map and compass, must find their way back! Relishing the opportunity to go old school, relying on the sun, road signs and local landmarks, John took on the longer 15 mile event. Getting dropped of somewhere between Keighley and Halifax, John found find his way back, running 17.6 miles in the process, but managing to win the event in 2:18:42, over 20 minutes ahead of the next finisher. A great result!
Just squeezing in before the snow took hold, several Harriers across the senior and junior clubs, travelled to North Yorkshire to take part in the Yorkshire Cross Country Championships at Lightwater Valley. The undulating lap based course, offering a variety of distances across the age groups, was in good condition despite the rain during the week. All participants, regardless of the distance had to tackle some steep climbs with a fast level finish. Five Juniors ran with some excellent results: In the U13 Boys race Thomas Greenwood was 31st in 10:51; Ben Stacey ran in the U15 Boys race coming 39th in 18:39; and Alexander Wolfenden had a top ten finish in the U17 Boys race in 22:44.
Three of our Younger Harriers took part in the U20 races: In the women’s race Helena Coy had a great run finishing the 6.3km race in the top ten in 28:31; Archie Budding took a fantastic second place in the men’s 8.2km race in 28:06, followed by Samesh Chotai in 30:26 taking seventh place.
And in the senior races, the Coy family were battling it out in the men’s race with some impressive times across the 10k course: Dom took family bragging rights coming over the line first in 35:37; Nathan was next in 39:33; and keeping the boys in sight and the last member of the family over the line was Steve in 42:06. Katie Hickling was the sole female Harrier at the event finishing the 8.2km senior women’s race in 47:13.
Blowing away the cobwebs and starting the year with parkrun fun, there were two opportunities to take part in the free 5k events across the country this week with 28 Harriers joining the events on New Year’s Day and 16 on Saturday. New Year’s Day saw some great top ten finishes across the country: Alex Foyn and Natalie Gravett-Foyn at Barnstead Woods; Oscar Shinn at the Chevin Forest event, securing a Personal Best on the first day of the year; Jaysson Sawyer at Fountains Abbey; James Horrex at Gunnersby; Adam Gerrish at Nottingham; and Samesh Chotai and Harry Sime at Skipton. Special mention to the Moore family who all ran in the Chevin Forest event with Juniors Michael and Isobel both taking age category first finisher positions. The weather meant many of the local events were cancelled at the weekend but there were still some great top ten finishes across the country: Rob Cunningham at the Eden Project; James Horrex at Harrogate; and Alex Foyn at Moel Valley where he also finished in a Personal Best time.
Congratulations to all who took part in an event.