From Jean Sullivan…
Success for Ilkley Harriers at home and abroad this week!
Huge success for Harrier Hilda Coulsey who took park in the AJ Bell Great North 10km this weekend. This 10km event started and finished in Newcastle’s Town Moor, a spacious 1,000 acre area of parkland This year’s race was special as it was chosen by England Athletics as a qualifying run for masters runners, who, if they qualify would then be eligible to run in an England vest in a specified international competition.
The route, which has a downhill start out of town, sees runners cross the Tyne Bridge and come back again into the city, with runners weaving their way through the streets, seeing the city sites, through the University area, with an uphill return back into the park. Music and excellent crowd support helped to spur everyone on. Hilda earned her England Age Group Master’s vest! She had a great run, finishing in 55:55 and taking first place in her age category.
Closer to home, this weekend saw the staging of the popular Eccup 10-mile road race, a very popular fixture on the West Yorkshire Road race calendar. The course takes in rural closed roads and a scenic route around Eccup reservoir outside Leeds. Four Harriers took part, with Mark Hall the first over the line, finishing in 20th place overall out of a field of almost 650 runners. Mark’s impressive time of 1:02:31, saw him take first prize in his age category. Thomas Mountain was the second Harrier home, with Dylan Shinn hot on his heels, both managing a sub 1:15 finish. Martin Stubbs also had a great run at this event, completing the course in an impressive 1:17:01.
Meanwhile, in Norway, Alison Weston, no stranger to challenging mountain races, undertook the Lofoten 33km Sky Race on the Lofoten archipelago north of the Artic Circle, in the county of Nordland in Norway. This challenging race with over 5,000ft of ascent saw runners deal with not only challenging terrain, but also wet and cold weather conditions. The route starts from the fishing village of Laukvik on the north coast of the island of Austvalgoya and finishes in Svolvaer on the south coast of the island. Three miles of road running led to the first steep climb onto the spectacular Matmora ridge. A steep descent back to the road followed before runners climbed again, this time to the partly frozen Botnvatnet lake, with lingering snow patches still visible. A rather tortuous descent with very slippery rocks, deep bogs and duck boards led finally to the finish line at Svolvaer, where runners were treated to a sauna, a dip in the sea and whale meat burgers! Alison had a fantastic run, completing the race in 5 hrs 42 mins and she finished in the top 50% of female finishers.
Back to shorter distances, the weekly timed 5km parkrun events remained popular with the Ilkley Harriers this week, with 24 Harriers taking part in various events both at home and abroad, with superb results all round. A first-place finish for Forrest Hamilton at the Bramley parkrun, with Forrest completing the course in a speedy 18:56, well over a minute ahead of the second-place finisher. Amanda Newham completed her 100th parkrun this week when she undertook the Malahide parkrun outside Dublin. Simon Lorimer and Abigail Swales also flew the flag for the Ilkley Harriers overseas, with Simon completing the Tsujido kaihin koen parkrun in Japan and Abigail the Wohrder See parkrun in Austria. Lots of top ten finishing places also including for; Nick Kealey at the Lister Park parkrun, father and son Steve and Nathan Coy at the Burnley parkrun, with Nathan finishing in third place and Dad Steve hot on his heels to finish in fourth place, James Horrex and Adam Gerrish at the Robert’s Park parkrun and Andrew Smith at the Harleston Magpies parkrun in East Anglia. Well done also to Harry Sime for achieving an overall parkrun PB on the Robert’s Park course this week, with an incredible age-grading score of 79.59%.