Created by : Tom Shaw On : Wed, 03/27/2024 - 15:25
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A very busy Saturday for harriers young and old both on the road and off this past weekend! Starting off with our junior contingent, three young harriers took part in the local schools XC over at Berry Hill. Some fine results as George North lead the field home n 1st place, with younger brother Freddie also running excellent to finish 19th. Not to be out done in the girls Emilie-Jean also had an excellent run, finishing 7th and helping her school win in the overall team competition!
More team work up next and on to the roads as both a men’s and ladies’ team headed down to Sutton Park, Sutton Coldfield for the Midlands 12 and 6 stage road relays. A mixture of longer 5.4 mile legs (1-4 for the men and 1&3 for the ladies) and 4 or 8 a-smidge-over 5k legs makes for a full afternoon of racing on a challenging undulating course which with a run-time of 4+ hours for the 12 stage managed to find us everything from sun, wind, hail and rain for a full bingo card of weather conditions! At mid-day Dom Fielding got the men’s team underway, followed by Adam Turner, Aidy Hopkinson and Paul Marriott to dispatch the initial 21+ miles for the men’s relay and on to short legs as Ben Rhodes set a blistering pace for the start followed by Peter Spencer, Henry Brady, Adam Jonczyk, Paul Parry, Bryan Cherry, Dave Bulmer and Tom Shaw to round out the team in a final time of 4:47:35.
This year was an improvement on last year not just for the time but we also fielding a ladies team in the 6-stage to add to the team away trip as Madi Spencer started the ladies team off, followed by Hannah Miller (short leg), before back to Sam Marriott to finish off the two ladies long legs with two excellent paced and close matches races between Madi and Sam! With just 15 km to go Sally Bulmer took the reins, followed by Cathy Mhembere and Rachel Silcock as the ladies ran 2:57:20.
Off the road and Chris Lawrence and Kevin Saville were a pair of vets on a trip out to Amber Valley on the edge of the peak district as they took on the Amberaid 30 and 20 respectively. 5000 and 3000 ft of climbing in some very muddy and wed conditions made for some tough conditions, possible living up to the organisers claim of its toughest on offer!
Finish off the fell racing and race report this week is the cheerfully named ‘Chicken Run’ as Sally and Jim Staveley got their first race back on English soil in an 8.5 mile category BM fell race with 1600 ft of elevation and all in aid of Hayfield Primary School. Taking on Lantern Pike and the moors and some excellent views across the Stockport Skyline. The race takes its name from its option to ‘chicken out’ and take the shorter 6 mile option (with 38 of the 229 runners electing to do so!) Much like the relays the race managed to pack rain, cloud sleet and eventually blue skies and sunshine in though having never dried up made for some challenging conditions under foot. Rewarded for sticking it out and not chickening out Sally picked up the back marker prize of a pack of free range eggs to make for a rewarding trip in to the peaks!
