Wherever you are in the country you can find a park run in the not too far distance, and that is how Rob and Christine Burn, on holiday in Norfolk, found themselves at the Great Yarmouth North Beach Park Run, perhaps one of the toughest in the country in that it is run mainly on powdery sand around sand dunes with a bit of shingle.  There were 68 finishers, and maybe it is not a run you are drawn back to do a second time!  Rob was 10th finisher in 26.11, (1st, if times were age adjusted) and Christine 53rd in 40.57.

 

Dave Baker, meanwhile, was at the more traditional Hanley event, 70th out of 226 in 25.44, and Katie Wadsworth at Teignmouth came 140th out of 320 in 27.18.  

 

People on holiday in this area might head for Fountains Abbey, and this happens very regularly.  With 403 finishers this week, it is ever popular with visitors and local runners alike, and Matt Jones continued his excellent form to come 11th in PB 18.33, with Mike Cropper 222nd in 28.29, Liz Wordsworth 239th in 29.23, Chris Wordsworth 272nd in 30.39 and Molly Kirkhope 385th in 38.54.  Adrian Saunders at Northallerton came 36th out of 135 in 24.36 and Diana Williams 113th in 35.27.  Pete Jackson and Duncan Fothergill were both at the Millfield event, Pete finishing 36th out of 162 in 24.25 and the ever improving Duncan 41st in PB 24.51 – comfortably under his target time.

Further afield, at Stratford upon Avon to be precise, Adrian Saunders was among the 339 finishers, coming 101st in 24.46.  Albert Park was the venue for Andy and Allison Whiteley and Andy was 80th out of 243 in 24.07, Allison 155th in 29.48.  There were 479 runners at Upton House and Katie Wadsworth came 211th in 27.32, and Diana Williams at the Ally Pally event was 123rd out of 129 in 38.46.  Pete Jackson, in his first park run of the year, was 38th out of 161 at Bedgebury Pinetum in 25.51.

 

Rob Burn was pleased to do another “proper” race with a mass start and 236 finishers.  It was and 8k Trail Race at Lotherton Hall, over farm tracks and woodland, with ankle deep mud in places after recent heavy rain, causing Rob to have a fall – a very rare occurrence.  This did not prevent him finishing in 28th place,  2nd in his age group in a time of 38.12.  Excellent as always.

 

Sessay Swift 6k is upon us on August 18th and is a sell out.  Let us hope for a fine dry evening!

The second actual race in two weeks, another of the Club Championship events, took place last weekend in the form of the Darlington 10k, with 21 Harriers among the 1050 finishers.  Runners were set off in waves, and times given are chip times.  It’s a flattish 2 lap road race but a long uphill stretch on each lap makes it feel quite testing.  Tom Levi was first club member home in 8th place in a time of 35.02, with Paul Peacock, 2nd in his age group, 37.08, veteran Rob Burn 43.58, Gemma Tutty, 5th lady in 44.03, Mike Lowther 45.06, David Tervit 45.11, Andy Butcher 47.40, Kirsty Naylor 48.42, Dave Baker 50.12, Duncan Fothergill 50.47, Joe Joyce 53.39, Tracey Lowther 55.53, Alison Butcher 56.57, Lucy Sillars 57.25, Ruth Pollard 58.27, Phillip Craig 58.46, Alison Whitely, Andy Whiteley and Muhammad Umar all given the same time of 1.01.20, although Mohammed took a wrong turn at one point, Christine Burn 67.08 and Margaret Wikeley 67.34.

 

A thankyou to Darlington Borough Council for enabling this race to take place, and to the people of Darlington for their support.

 

On the same day (which is a disappointing situation) more than twice as many runners completed the York 10k, another flat course with cheering crowds along the streets of York.  Jack Spence took a very good 41.54 and Adrian Elsworth was pleased with 44.16.

 

Park Runs were again well supported, with 382 runners at Fountains Abbey, over a hundred more than last week.  Kimberli Werner had a PB 33.57, and Katie Wadsworth, Marian Codling and Ian Codling were also among the finishers.

 

Diana Williams and Molly Kirkhope were among the 102 finishers at the Northallerton event, and Stephan Tomaszewski came 6th out of 127 at Millfield in PB 20.27.

 

Not long now to the Sessay Swift 6k on Aug 18th, with only a few places left.  Get your entry in on line if you wish to do it, and if you’d like to help with the race, please contact the club on 07981 783064. 

 

 

How happy Harriers were to be running in an actual race, even though the James Herriot 14k Trail race is one of the toughest for miles around!  In fact, the club categorises it as a fell race in its Club Championship, and it is probably as hard as many a fell race, especially on a warm, humid day.  Runners were started off in waves to keep them as safe as possible in the pandemic and 32 tired and exhausted members completed the run out of the 178 finishers.  Although Tom Levi crossed the line first, he was in fact 2nd by time, 45.67, though I’m sure he enjoyed the pleasure of “breaking the tape”!  Paul Peacock finished 5th by time in 56.63, Matt Jones 10th in 59.22, Josh Cooper 24th in 63.08, Lorraine Hiles 50th in 70.63, Alan Simpson 53rd in 70.75, David Tervit 62nd in 73.38, Brett Edgeworth 64th in 73.67, Mike Lowther 65th in 73.90, Marc Davies 72nd in 75.22, Kirsty Naylor 73rd in 75.38, Andy Butcher 81st in 76.32, Pedro Carrasco 83rd in 76.53, Dave Baker 97th in 79.07, Duncan Fothergill 99th in 79.22, Amber Westron 100th in 79.27, Geoff Bullock 111th in 81.73, Adrian Saunders 114th in 82.35, Clare Tempest 118th in 83.28, Rosie Gatenby 127th in 87.37, Trish Radford 132nd in 88.90, Tracey Lowther 139th in 91.98, Alison Butcher 148th in 96.48, James Stephenson 158th in 102.00, Bev Davies 162nd in 102.48, Richard Easby 163rd in 103.28, Margaret Wikeley 168th in 109.27, Kimberli Werner 171st in 111.47, Christine Burn 172nd in 115.17 and Liz Stephenson 177th in 126.47.  Very many congratulations to all those very determined and courageous runners!

 

As a carry over from last year, Gary Wilkinson completed the Durham Coastal Half Marathon along the coast from Seaham to Crimdon Beach and finished 128th out of 302 in a very creditable 2.14.13.

 

 Meanwhile, thousands of runners throughout the country were delighted to welcome back Park Run, with organisers requesting that runners respect social distancing, which they were only too happy to do.  Among the 275 at Fountains Abbey, Adrian Elsworth took PB 21.55, Mike Cropper 22.25, Katie Rees PB 26.58, Marian Codling 45.03 and Ian Codling 46.45.  

 

6 members were among the 170 finishers at Northallerton, including new member, Bronwyn Mayo, 19th and 1st lady, in 21.19, Duncan Fothergill 24.50, Katie Wadsworth 29.41, newly shorn Phillip Craig in 30.08, Hugh Jenyns in 35.17 and Diana Williams 37.37.  

 

Among 156 finsihers at Millfield, Gary Wilkinson took PB 23.30, Faith Coy 27.45 and Trish Radford PB 28.06.  All in all, a happy band of runners, and a big thankyou to all the volunteers who make these things happen.

 Over the month of May, 7 Harriers entered a virtual Melmerby 10k with self timing on an appropriate watch!  Ken Wood took 47.13, Gary Wilkinson 47.47, Duncan Fothergill 51.03, Richard Easby 65.27, Caroline Pearce 66.32 and Maureen Worley 73.57.  Well done to the Melmerby organisers of this friendly, reasonably level, local race, and well done to those who took part.

  Racing really begins in earnest this week with the first actual Harrogate League event organised by Nidd Valley Runners and based at Sicklinghall on Wednesday and at the weekend, many members will take on the James Herriot Trail Race, a really tough event.  Before that, the long awaited Park Runs will resume on Saturday July 24th with runners heading for their favourite venue.  Over the past 14 months, notaparkrun park runs have been on offer, and the final one last Saturday included Martyn Coy in 23.14, Pete Jackson 24.42, Rob Lickley 26.48, Duncan Fothergill 26.50 just ahead of ever present Gary Wilkinson, 26.51, with Phillip Craig taking 33.53 and Hugh Jenyns, gradually coming back from injury, 34.47.  Thanks to Paul Chapman for supplying these results each week.

  The club offers a variety of challenges throughout the year, and this week there was a bleep test organised by Andy Butcher.  This allows for members to test both speed and endurance and 50 or so took part, ending with Tom Levi on top of the pile!

 There is still time to get your entry in for the few remaining places in the Sessay Swift 6k on August 18th.