From Jill Ezard and Nicola Budding…
Photo credit Haylie Eaton
Yorkshire team success on the fells and podium places on the road
Racing started early this week with a midweek, evening trip to Otley, with eight Harriers taking on the ever-popular Otley ten mile road race. In it’s 40th year, this hilly route goes out to Pool in Wharfedale, climbs up to Leathley, with an added hilly loop at the top, before going on to Farnley, with still more undulations to contend with. After Farnley the route flattens with a downhill finish back to Otley for a grandstand finish. It was a very warm evening for the race and despite the conditions there were some great performances: First over the line was Edwyn Oliver-Evans in 1:11:08 followed by Tony Pye in 1:14:20; Rachel Carter was the first female Harrier to finish in 1:1501 taking first place in her age category; Luke Greenwood, Martin Stubbs, Marc Westerman and Jeremy Greenwood all had great runs with Jean Sullivan the only other female Harrier finishing in 1:30:01 and taking second place in her age category.
On Saturday, three Harriers, Jack Cummings, Oli Murphy and Sam Bentham, donned their Yorkshire vests to take part in the 2025 British Inter-Counties Mountain Running Championships, this year being held at the Pen-Y-Ghent Fell race. This 12.2km race takes participants from Horton up through the Limekiln Pastures, up the steep scramble through the southern crags and back to Horton via Whitber and Jackdaw Hills, an impressive 612m of climb! Along with two other Yorkshire runners the team beat some tough competition to take first prize after some superb performances: Jack Cummings was 14th in 50:35; Sam Bentham 24th in 51:12; and Oli Murphy was 38th in 52:44. There were other great Harrier performances in the race with Nathan Edmondson (a reserve for the Yorkshire team) finishing in sixth place in 49:14, Adam Gerrish in 1:18:07 and Paul Disney seconds behind in 1:18:34.
And the impressive performances continued at the Run For All 10k race in Leeds on Sunday and the Windermere marathon. In Leeds, four Harriers set off from the University of Leeds buildings on Woodhouse Lane, round Woodhouse Moor, out to Headingly and Meanwood before finishing at the Art Gallery on The Headrow. Matthew Thackwray continued his run of form taking a superb second place in 31:25. All Harriers broke the one hour mark with David Lewis the second Harrier to finish in 51:14 followed seconds behind by Karl Hutchinson in 51:44 and Will Worboys in 58:44. Meanwhile, in an entirely different road race, one of the “Jeffing” group, Esmail Zadeh, put in a superb performance at the Windermere Marathon. Starting at Waterhead near Ambleside and completing almost a full lap of the lake, the race climbs over 2000ft offering some breathtaking views on the way to the finish line at Brockhole on the lake. Esmail completed the race in 5:02:10.
Further afield two Harriers took on two very different challenges. Alison Weston ventured to the Isle of Arran, off the west coast of Scotland to take part in the challenging but somewhat romantically titled Glen Rosa Horseshoe, a traditional fell race. The route is a mix of steep heathery ascent, contouring on mixed terrain, ridge running and easy scrambling. Navigation skills are required and definitely were at the weekend given the mist and rain on the day! Alison completed the race in 4:25:12 and was third in her age category. Nigel Illingworth however, took on the innocuous sounding Bridge Run on its 25th anniversary. A half marathon road event, the race starts in Denmark but finishes in Sweden running the full length of the Øresund Bridge! Nigel completed the event in 2:36:39.
Finally, our juniors and younger Harriers had a great turnout at the Hawkswick Dash, the fifth race in the BOFRA Race League, on Sunday. The race begins gently running along a narrow track before a steep climb up to the ridge. The U14 runners turn at this point to retrace their steps to the finish. The U17 and U23 runners continue along the skyline before a steep descent (not for the faint hearted) to the finish having completed 1.4 miles with a climb of 170m. In the U23 George Whittlestone was fifth in 14:21 and Oscar Shinn had a great race taking third place in the U17 race. Michael Moore was second in the U12 boys’ race with sister Isobel placing sixth in the U12 girls’ event alongside Lottie Prior who was 20th. Martha Prior was ninth in the U9 girls’ race. Well done to all!
Our parkrunners were having fun at home and abroad too with 20+ Harriers taking on the weekly timed events. There were top 10 finishes for Sam Angus and Maddie Morris in the Netherlands, and Emma Barclay, James Horrex, Alicia Horrex, Steve Gott and Andrew Overend closer to home. There were PBs from Hattie O’Looney, and Kate Williams and fantastic age gradings for Hilda Coulsey, 85.41%, Alison Bennett, 87.32% and Diane Kitchen, 81.64%. Well done to everyone that took part in these fun and free events which are open to runners of all abilities.