Half a dozen Harriers escaped the clutches of Storm Bert this weekend to enjoy running in the warmer climes of Spain’s Costa Blanca. Harry Johnson continued his recent sensational form to finish second in a field of nearly 3,000 runners in the Benidorm 10k. Harry's time of 30:33 was a new personal best and club record.
Will Stewart was next, clocking 40:59, followed by wife, April, in 42:02. Joanne Arundale (46:28), Mark Crabtree (46:44) and Craig Empsall (46:48) completed the team, all finishing close together.
Tom Paget and James O’Rourke travelled across the border yesterday to take part in the 40th Tour of Pendle fell race.
Warm up consisted of a jog around Pendle parkrun - a route with plenty of ups and downs and some nice scenery.
Once their bar codes had been scanned, they made a dash from the finish line to the pretty village of Barley to collect their numbers for the main event.
The classic Tour of Pendle fell race is generally acknowledged to be one of the hardest on the calendar at about 17 miles and nearly 5000ft of ascent with many boggy sections, very steep climbs and descents and the infamous drop that is ‘Geronimo.’
Both finished in a creditable sub 4 hour time and James even won a spot prize to put the icing on the cake. After a well earned chip butty and cuppa, they headed back to Halifax.
Fourteen Harriers turned out at the Tadcaster 10 this morning; the latest race in the club's Road Race Challenge. This popular race takes place on a fast and flattish course (albeit with a long steady climb in the middle!), starting with a loop around the town before heading east to tour around surrounding villages. All on closed roads.
Niall Smith (see photo) was the first of the Harriers to finish, coming very close to breaking the one hour mark, taking 38th place in 1:00:22. Paul Bateman was next in 1:04:03 followed by Amy Radford, the first of our four ladies, in 1:12:43. Jack Melia recorded a new Personal Best of 1:19:32.
Two Harriers were amongst the 2,765 finishers at the scenic Conwy Half Marathon in North Wales. Marc Rocheteau completed the course, which takes in superb coastline views around the Great Orme, in 1:59:16 whilst suffering from a heavy cold. Jane Hobson finished in 2:05:12.
There were also two Harriers at the Alton Towers Half Marathon. The course starts and finishes in the Theme Park and follows roads and paths within the Resort. Free access to the rides is included in the entry fee. Will Stewart finished in 44th place in 1:29:31. Ian Giles clocked 1:53:27.
Away from the roads, Simon Gelsthorpe competed in Saturday's Padfield Plum Fair Scamper Fell Race in the Peak District. Simon clocked 39:19 on the 4.3 mile course with 850' of total ascent, and placed first in the M65 category.
Congratulations to all our runners competing this weekend. Full results are in Recent Races on the website.