Created by : Tom Shaw On : Mon, 03/11/2024 - 13:23
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A bumper weekend of racing as we had road, XC, the Fells and T&F covered all in one weekend!
On Saturday the XC finally came to end with inter-counties XC taking place at a new venue of Wollaton Hall for the first time. The inter-counties pits teams of representatives from counties all across the UK following qualifying at their respective county championships and this year the Worksop Harriers supplied three athletes for the Nottinghamshire Team. Miley Townrow ran in the U15 girls, Theo Bezoari-Oldfield represented in the U13 boys, whilst Tom Shaw and Dom Fielding ran in the Senior Men’s race. With races for U13 up to Senior category, athletes ran a variety of distances which were made using a combination of a small lap and a large lap on the NE side of the park. Starting at the foot of the hill of Wollaton Hall, every lap ensured a tough run up the house before a fast descent down towards wood and grass lands. Conditions were surprisingly good considering the XC season we’ve had with a good sunny afternoon and very runnable grass conditions at this lovely venue, the only mud of note coming in the far corner of the larger laps meaning some athletes will have dodged the mud entirely! For Miley in the U15’s, it was two small laps finishing 239th as Notts finished 28th. In the U13 boys, Theo finished in 217th. With the final race of the day, the Men got four laps, consisting of two small + two large (and four hill reps!) as Tom Shaw finished 177th (6th for Notts) whilst Dom finished 208th (7th Notts) to help Notts to a 20th place finish.
Off the Grass and on to the (Track and) field as two young ladies competed. At the National Indoor Pentathlon Championship in Sheffield, Charlotte Ayton was a late call up to the competition and despite the short notice had a strong showing finishing 26th with 2359 points with results of 60mH (10.19s), HJ (1.41m), Shot (6.74m), LJ (4.36m) and 800 m (2:51.56). The next day and Alicia Wells also returned to competition after a 9 month hiatus. Following a gradual return to training and improving fitness, Alciia was ready to return to competition in the open at Manchester Sports City. Moving up to U20 category, Alicia ran 9.80s in the 60mH before jumping 1.56 m in the HJ to mark a successful return.
Now on to the Road and the biggest event of the weekend was just down the road at Retford as many green and black both flew on the race course and lined the course on marshalling and support duty. Conditions were wet but clearly good for times as we saw a flurry of early season road PBs and cracking runs as a Worksop trio of Aidy Hopkinson, Nick Moore and Adam Turner made a fantastic job in for which two was their first road halfs in 1:16:58, 1:17:18 and 1:18:01 (both obtaining their first Silver Standards), followed soon by Paul Marriott in 1:21:23. Coming next was the PB train as a string of them as Paul Parry (1:23:49 and club gold standard), Jack Hutchinson (1:25:10), Henry Brady (1:25:03), Bryan Cherry (1:26:35) and Dom Ayton and Chris Bliss dipping under 1:30 in 1:29:13 and 1:29:34 for a pair of Bronze Standards. The ladies were also in on the PB action as Sam Marriott ran 1:45:03 but biggest PB of the day goes to Jo Campbell demolishing here sub-2 goal in 1:50:55 and a bronze standard to boot! Cath Mhembere is looking in great shape for an upcoming Marathon with a 1:51:41 inside a long run. Lucy Binch and Charlotte Randell ran an excellent debuts in 1:55:26 and 1:58:54 whilst Matan Duveen bagged a course PB in 2:00:10. Kate Thorneloe was on the move again after last weeks BYU running 2:11:37 followed shortly by Sarah Whiting in 2:12:17. Katrina Considine ran 2:13:21 followed by Tracy Reeves (2:15:56) before more marathon training runs with Julie Wragg in 2:24:31. Last but no means least we finish with another big PB as Sarah-Jayne Baines took on her second half marathon with an improvement of over 10 minutes in 2:37:26.
It wasn’t just about the runners from the green and black as as well as supporting our Retford friends with plenty of on-course marshalls, Richard and Gemma Hind rallied up the troops to occupy water station 2 on Billy button lane (in case anyone needs more water?!?!) Ensuring runners were kept supplied and motivated through nearly half way it was a great way to watch the race, cheer on friends and keep people motivated as 10 harriers kept manned the station and watched the action unfold, unbothered by conditions as they got to cheer on fellow athletes!
We promised some fell action so this weeks run report finishes at Hope Valley. 5.7 miles and all the mud missing from yesterdays XC, the Wolf’s Pit Fell Race included some sharp climbs, plenty of cattle to dodge but not the views that were promised thanks to the foggy wet weather conditions. Plenty of ups and downs plus a tumble for Chris Lawrence as it was a team of experience with Tanja Maric, Kerry Saville and Steve Hazlehurst.
