From Jill Ezard…
Course and personal records and a win on the road made for a busy weekend for the Harriers
Week two of February and already the Harriers are getting into their stride. It was a cracking start to the racing week for Lawrence McCourt who ran the Armagh 5k on Thursday. Billed as one of the fastest 5k races in the world, it has the record of the highest number of sub 15 minute finishes in one race attracting elite runners from all over the globe. Lawrence was on superb form finishing the race in 14:46.
Dave Foyston and Dick Waddington had great runs at the Evensplits 5k event in York on Friday 10th. One of a series of monthly events held at the University of York Sport Village Cycle Circuit, the course is known for being flat and fast providing a perfect opportunity for running a personal best. Which is just what Dave did completing the 5 circuits of the 1km track in just 16:50, coming 12th overall and first in his age group. Dick completed the race in 20:07.
In contrast, Petra Bijsterveld and James Dobbing took on a slightly longer challenge in the Punk Panther Harrogate Hustle on Saturday. The 36.2miles route, starting and finishing in the Harrogate Showground and following the Harrogate Ringway and the Knaresborough Round, saw Petra and James tackle 2570 feet of climb on trails, across fields and on roads. James was first home in 6:39:54, followed by Petra in 7:13:12.
Further afield on Saturday, Ben Rothery took part in the Long Mynd Valleys fell race in Shropshire. An 18.5km race with 1370m of climb, this is a tough race rightly earning its place as one of the 2023 English Fell Running Championship counters. It was a fast race with Ben taking fourth place in 1:30:08, with the first six runners and the first lady all beating the course records set in 2017.
Sunday was back to our road runners. Sally Armitage was on the podium again after a superb run at the Liversedge Half Marathon. Starting and finishing at the Commonside in Liversedge the hilly figure of eight route has over 300m of climb. Sally had a fabulous race finishing as first lady and 20th overall in 1:24:53, nearly two minutes ahead of the second finisher. Michael Ho also took on the challenge and finished in 1:48:43 comfortably in the top half of the results table.
Finally, 18 Harriers turned out for the weekly timed parkrun events across the country, with seven Harriers taking on the Roberts Park event alone: Not content with a PB the night before Dave Foyston was the fourth finisher in 17:31; and Beth Massey was the sixth female finisher in 21:39. Mike Abrams-Cohen continued his run of parkrun form completing the Middleton Woods event as second finisher in 18:55 and Fiona Schneider was at Cliffe Castle, finishing as seventh female in 28:36. Further afield, Jacqui Foster took part in the Morecambe prom event and was sixth female finisher in 24:05, and the Mon-Williams family all had top 10 finishes in their events: Ruaridh was first finisher at the Holyrood event in Edinburgh in 16:05; Rebecca was second female finisher at the Bryn Bach event in South Wales in 23:08; and Mark was seventh finisher at the same event in 19:52.