From Jill Ezard…
Photo credit: Sacha Jones – photo caption: Women’s Vet 40 receiving their third place medals at the British Fell and Hill relays
Fell running podium success for Ilkley Harriers’ Women’s Vets team.
Four teams of Harriers travelled to Wales on Saturday to compete in the 2025 British Fell and Hill Relays. With a maximum of 200 teams across all four nations, split equally between male and female teams, tough competition is guaranteed. Teams consist of six athletes who will compete over four legs: two short , one long and one navigation exercise. The event was hosted at Penantigi Isaf Farm, Dinas Mawddwy in Powys with each leg starting and finishing at the farm. It was tough terrain for all runners: Leg one was a short leg of 4.2km and 513m of elevation for a solo runner; a pair of runners tackled leg two which covered 11.1km and 758m of ascent; leg three saw two runners navigate their way round identified checkpoints across unmarked land covering approximately 11km and 719m of ascent – assuming they didn’t go wrong; and finally the last solo runner covered the same distance and elevation as leg one over a different route. The Women’s vet 40 team of Jane McCarthy, Rachel Carter, Kate Archer, Alison Weston, Jann Smith and Katie Poulter, had a fantastic run tackling the course in a total of 4:30:53 and taking third place. Jane got the team off to a flying start taking second place in leg one, with the team remaining consistent throughout the remaining legs. The mixed team of Ann Marsham, Sacha Jones, David Norris, Nick Helliwell, Simon Richardson and Nea Weston, who stepped in at the last minute to run a fantastic anchor leg, ran consistently completing the course in 4:27:48 taking 7th place. In the men’s open category, solo runners Sam Bentham and Ben Rothery each took second place in their legs with the pairs of Nathan Edmondson, Oli Murphy, John Denniss and Michael Odell completing the team to finish in 16th place overall in 3:22:24. The men’s vet team of Iain Gibbons, Nick Kealey, Ritchie Williamson, Paul Carman, Dan McKeown and Gawain Moore all ran consistently finishing in 13th place in 3:55:27. Well done to all the teams representing the club.
On the fells closer to home, two Harriers took on the Ultra Tour Yorkshire Dales 25km race. Starting and finishing in Grassington the course took participants through lesser known parts of the dales beyond Threshfield, deceptively covering 27km with 585m of elevation. Steve Ladhams was the first Harrier to finish in ninth place overall and fourth in his age category in 2:39:03. Adela Reperecki had a superb run out taking the win in her age category and completing the course in 3:39:23.
On easier terrain there were several Harriers tackling road marathons this weekend. It was another outing in an England vest for Hilda Coulsey at the Abingdon Marathon, having secured her place to represent England at the London Marathon earlier in the year. Despite the terrain being flatter, the course was challenging following the twists and turns of the roads around the area with only about five miles of closed roads. Hilda put in another great effort in a tough field in her age category and, despite a nasty collision with a cyclist near the end, finished the event in 4:44:01.
In York it was a bumper Harriers turnout for the Run For All Yorkshire Marathon. This is a flat and fast course taking participants out through the city, past the Minster and into the countryside towards Sand Hutton and Stamford Bridge before returning to the event village at the University of York. Eleven Harriers took on the challenge with some fantastic results: Matthew Thackwray was first Harrier home in a blistering 2:31:31 finishing eighth overall and second in his age category; Jaysson Sawyer and Mark Bly came in under the three hour mark in 2:53:16 and 2:59:06 respectively; Ash Winter, Andrew Marshall, Charles Wain, Jonny McKenna, Luke Watkeys and Mark Gill all finished comfortably under four hours; and Danny Thompson and Esmaeil Zadeh, one of the Run/Walk group, both finished well under five hours.
Finally, Helena Coy, one of our young adult Harriers, was out in Australia representing Great Britain at the Junior World Triathlon Championships at the weekend. Helena came 22nd in a tough field, battling very windy conditions, and was the first GB runner home in the Junior Women’s sprint distance race in 01:06:46.
It was a bumper turnout at parkrun events across the country this weekend with 39 Harriers donning their trainers to run, walk or run/walk one of the free weekly timed events. There were PBs for several Harriers including Juniors Megan and Ella Snow. Eight Harriers were in the top ten finishers with Samesh Chotai, Junior Harrier James Lee, and Steve Coy all achieving first three finishes. And there were some outstanding age gradings for Geoff Howard 85.12%, Harry Sime 82.27% and Mark Hall a whopping 86.13%. Well done to everyone who took part.