From Jean Sullivan…
Three existing club records broken by Ilkley Harriers this week!
What a week for the Ilkley Harriers, with three all-time club records broken in one weekend!
Harrier Beth Massey smashed two of them when she took part in the Wombwell 5m road race, a long-established race in South Yorkshire, organised by Kingstone Harriers.
This race has the added novelty factor of starting and finishing on a go-kart track! The course is largely flat, with the exception of a hill after the one-mile marker. Beth not only had a great run, finishing as seventh lady overall in a time of 32:38, she also took the first FV50 prize. Beth’s time represents a new FV45 and FV50 club record for the Ilkley Harriers, with Beth beating both by well over a minute.
Hilda Coulsey also continued her fine form and smashed the current FV70 club record for a half marathon (which had stood since 2013) by an incredible 20 minutes. Hilda had a superb run at the Great North West half marathon, organised by Flyde Coast Runners. This race starts from Blackpool’s north promenade and is a fast and flat two-lap course across the seafront in Blackpool. This race is now in its 34th year and although it has PB potential it can be difficult if the weather is poor, particularly if the prevailing winds are strong.
Hilda, who turned 70 earlier this month, completed the course in a superb 1:52:28 and was also first in the FV65 age category, as well as being the 29th female out of a total of 159 who completed the race.
Ilkley Harrier Andrew Merrick also took part, taking an impressive third place in the MV60 age category, with Andrew completing the course in 1:44:18.
This weekend saw the staging of the Flower Scar fell race organised by Todmorden Harriers. This tough 13.3km event features 2,165ft of climbing and takes runners from Todmorden up to the moors with lots of tricky and challenging South Pennine terrain to contend with.
Jeff Green led the Harriers home, finishing in an impressive seventh place overall in a time of 1:13:19, with Jeff taking first prize in his age category. Hot on his heels was Nick Kealey, who completed the course in 1:17:37, with Nick taking also taking a first place in his age cat.
Jim Ryder was the third Harrier home in 1:28:43. Jo Foster was the only Ilkley lady to take part, adding to the age cat prizes with a third place.
There was a great turnout of Harriers at Race 4 of the popular PECO cross country series which took place this weekend at Middleton Park in Leeds.
In the ladies 4.5-mile race, Ruth Kitchen was the first Ilkley lady home, with Ruth finishing in 15th place overall in a great time of 33:13. She was followed by Alison Bennett who completed the course in 39:07, with Alison taking first prize in her age category. Catherine Glaister was the third Ilkley lady home. Sarah Gregory, Helen Jacques, Kate Lofthouse and Sally Wright also had great runs at his event.
In the men’s race, also 4.5miles in distance, Dan McKeown was the first Harrier home, finishing in 16th place overall and taking second in his age category. Finishing just 25 seconds later was clubmate Steven Gott, with Steven taking first place in his age category. Danny Thompson was the third Ilkley man home in a great time of 30:24. Peter Shelley, Colin Williams, David Singleton, Matthew Snow, Leo Graham and Alan Travis also had great performances at his race.
Ilkley Harriers retained their excellent attendance at the weekly timed 5km parkrun series with 23 taking part in various events around the country. There were lots of top ten placings including: Michael Abrams-Cohen who was the second finisher at the Wetherby parkrun, David Foyston third finisher at the Robert’s Park parkrun, Matt Cox fourth finisher at the same parkrun, with Adam Gerrish and James Lee also the fourth finishers at the Bradford and Chevin Forest parkruns respectively. Nicola Budding also had an impressive run at the Conyngham Hall parkrun, with Nicola being the seventh female to finish.