Andy Armstrong – Clayton-le-Moors Harriers

Christmas Eve @ Barley

….just to remind all our juniors that we’ll be having our traditional Christmas Eve run from Barley Village car park, meet at 10:45. Everyone should have had an email about this but just in case you haven’t (or don’t bother reading them!) here are the rules;

Bring the kit; wear a jacket, suitable long sleeved layers underneath, hat (or buff) and some thin gloves. Trail or Fell shoes are strongly advised, especially for the older runners who will be on rough terrain. It’ll be a lot windier & colder up on Pendle than down in Barley so dress accordingly.
Eat Breakfast; you can’t go running without fuel so make sure you’ve had something (and not just rice crispies) at least 40 minutes before we start.

..If there are any seniors who’d like to assist the juniors then we’d be very grateful to see you, just approach us on the car park. If you’ve not been running much lately or you don’t fancy hanging off the back of a less than ‘social’ senior group then come along with us instead.

…..and don’t forget the Santa Hats!

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ByAndy Armstrong

CLAYTON JUNIORS NEED YOUR HELP; NOW!

In the last few years we’ve seen the junior section steadily grow and grow. Starting with just a handful of runners we now regularly have 20-30 juniors attend our Thursday evening training sessions and the Saturday morning group is steadily getting more popular.

In 2015 we’ve seen success in several different areas; excellent solo performances in the BOFRA & FRA championships, top ten finishes in local road races and strong team results in the XC leagues. All this has been testimony to the commitment and hard work of our junior runners as well as the coaches and assistants involved in their training.

However; under the surface, there are serious problems building. We’ve always struggled to deliver properly targeted coaching sessions because of a lack of adult helpers. As groups get bigger so the quality of the session diminishes and our ability to control safety reduces. This has gradually become worse and worse, to the point where group sizes are becoming dangerous and the wide range of abilities is not being addressed.

You can help. We have a small group of regular helpers (and we’re very grateful to them) but it’s just not enough, we desperately need considerably more interest & support from the senior side of the club. It’s not difficult work, the coach will run the session and explain what’s going on, you just have to be there to assist & encourage. If you really enjoy it then there are opportunities to gain coaching qualifications and to lead groups.

It doesn’t matter what your running ability is; most of our sessions are structured intervals over a short course. It also doesn’t matter if you can only come once a month, all we need is a regular commitment. Don’t be shy; it’s not like school, these kids want to be here and they really put the effort in. Coaching youngsters can be very rewarding and it’s always fun!

We’ve made this plea in the past, to little effect, but I really hope that we can do better this time. Other local clubs have started junior sections and are getting plenty of support from their senior runners.

There are other ways of supporting your club than turning up to free XC races or clapping at the sidelines; get involved and make a difference to the future of Clayton.

Hoping to here from you,

Andy Armstrong.

photos courtesy of Woodentops, David Belshaw, Alan Dorrington

ByAndy Armstrong

junior cross country

Red Rose XC; Final details

(this also applies to any seniors hoping to enter Red Rose events this season).

Jason Pier is managing the club’s entry to the Red Rose league; he will have numbers for all the juniors and any seniors that have expressed interest in running and you can collect them off him on the day.

Don’t forget that the races start at 12:15, this is earlier than in previous years. Please make sure you bring your Clayton vest to every fixture and get there at least 45 minutes before your race starts.

Have a good look at the Red Rose website, it has all the information you need about how to get there, where to park, what age category you’ll be in, when your race is, etc, etc. Please don’t pester Jason with all these questions, he’ll have enough to do!

Wigan is a flat course with a mixture of grass and woodland path. It’ll be muddy in places but shouldn’t be too bad. If you’ve got a choice of shoes then bring them all and decide on the day.

See you there!

ByAndy Armstrong

junior training

Junior Training is back…..

Just to remind all parents that junior training is restarting from Thursday 4th September; check out the Junior Training page for more details.

ByAndy Armstrong

fra championship, Junior Three Seasons Challenge

Juniors at Large; Wednesday 23rd July

The FRA junior championship has now drawn to a close and Briony Holt’s win at Kettlewell has secured her joint first place in the under 12; well done Briony!

The winners cup is on a timeshare; Chloe Rylance of Ambleside gets to look after it for six months then I’m sure it’ll have pride of place in the Holt household.

Our Three Seasons Challenge has finally finished with thirteen members making the trip to Widdop. The results table has been updated and we’ll organise a prize giving early in the Autumn term. Well done to all who took part,whether you just managed to get to a few races or you won your age group. It’s especially encouraging to see more younger runners coming through in the under 8 and under 10 categories, proof that Marion’s Thursday sessions are increasingly popular and are producing results.

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Also in the news; Jordan McDonald was nominated for a Burnley Sports Award as a Rising Star. He attended the prize giving dinner on Thursday 10th July and got to meet five times Olympian and world record swimmer Mark Foster.
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Team Root has been busy at multi sport again; Ellie Root came 6th girl out of 14th in Tri-stars 3 in the Wirral Triathlon on Sunday 29th June and both Ellie & Grace Root took part in the Salt Ayre Triathlon, Grace was 4th girl (out of 6) in supersprint and Ellie was 8th girl out of 22. After Wirral Ellie is currently standing in 10th position in the North West Junior Tri Championships.

Well done to all our runners at the Trawden 7 junior races, you get a mention and a picture in Chris Holdsworth’s race round up HERE.

That’s all for this week, well done to you all, apologies to anyone I’ve missed!

Pictures courtesy of;

Woodentops

Andy Ford/EightImaging

ByAndy Armstrong

Junior Three Seasons Challenge, parkrun

Juniors at Large; Saturday 12th July

We’ve had a busy two weeks, with the full mix of fell, trail, parkrun and road races.

Continuing her attack on the BOFRA junior championship, Briony Holt finished first u14 girl at Kirby Gala. This result puts her in 4th place with races in hand. Big brother Curtis Holt tried his hand at the u17 course, finishing 4th.

Race 8 of the Pendle & Burnley Grand Prix was the Burnley Boys Club 5k, where 6 juniors took part. Jordan McDonald was first junior home in 11th place out of over a hundred runners. Also running were Alex Townrow (30th) and Tom Bradley (46th). For the girls we had Alice Pier finishing 1st (and 4th lady overall), followed by Bethany Quinn 2nd (12th girl overall) and last but not least; Riaghnach Jameson finished 3rd girl in 29:02.

The Witton Park Trail Relay on Thursday 26th June was an excellent chance for some team building. This is a tough course with a long drag to the peak and a fast descent to the finish. Clayton juniors entered three teams and had some excellent results;

First Junior Team; Alex Townrow, Kenan Eti, Tom Bradley.

Second Junior Team; Ryan Clarke, George Pier, Curtis Holt.

First Junior Girls Team (and second ladies overall); Alice Pier, Ellie Root, Briony Holt.

Our Three Seasons Challenge is nearing its climax; second to last race was the Astley Park trail race in Chorley. Ten ran on a warm Wednesday evening with great results. Tom Bradley narrowly missed out on a race win after a sprint finish (he’s learned not to let people sit just behind him in races!) and Briony Holt took first girl. Well done to all and especially to one of our youngest runners Rachel Stevenson who had a great sprint finish. Last race in the series is this coming Wednesday 16th July at Widdop.

Cannonball Events is again running its Todmorden Park 5k races; a fast 5 lap route within the park. Thursday night was race 2 in the series and five juniors went over to compete. George Pier finished first u18, closely followed by Tom Bradley and Alex Townrow, all under 20 minutes. Alice Pier was first u18 girl in 21:03 and Dan Bradley finished in 24:41.

Lastly, Saturday 12th July saw the Orange Crew descend on Pendle Parkrun! We had 15 juniors turn up, most for their first attempt at this course. Despite a brief attempt to get himself lost, Jordan McDonald managed to stick to the plan and shadow the leading runner all the way round the course before winning the event in a parkrun personal best and new course record of 17:53. Ryan Clarke came in 6th in 20:44, followed by Jackson McKay in 7th on 20:50. Full results are on the website; some of you may have recorded new parkrun PBs but it won’t show if it’s your first attempt at this course.

Well done to Alice Pier for first lady overall and a special mention to Kaylon Cotterill who was not impressed with having to do two laps at Reservoir Bogs, It took all mum & dad’s persuasion to get him to come along to another race but he had an excellent run, hopefully he’s feeling more positive about it now!

Commiserations to two runners who had to abandon halfway round due to injury; it’s a very hard decision to make but it’s always the right one; running through an injury is a recipe for not running at all!

Well done to everyone, some superb personal and team performances!

ByAndy Armstrong

bofra, Junior Three Seasons Challenge, race for life

Juniors at Large; Friday 27th June

Firstly; apologies to Ellie Root for missing out her results at the Manchester Tri Club Junior Triathlon at Altrincham. She competed in the Tristar 3 category (300m swim/6km bike/2.4km run) and came 7th out of 13 girls, 13th/24 overall. She also recorded the fastest girls run.

Saturday 14th saw the Lancashire schools Track event over at Stanley Park in Blackpool. Three of our juniors took part; Alice Pier finished 3rd in the intermediate girls 1500m final, running in 5:25 (despite being moved up an age group by her school), Curtis Holt came 9th in his Junior Boys 800m heat with 2:22 and Tom Bradley came 15th in the Junior Boys 1500m final with 5:09.

Also over at Blackpool, on Sunday 15th June was the Blue Light 5 mile road race, organised by Wesham Road Runners. Jordan McDonald and Ryan Clarke made the trip over to Blackpool and finished 11th and 21st out of 95 runners. Well done to both of you!

On the same day, three juniors took part in the Burnley Race for Life at Towneley Park. They don’t produce official results for these events but Beth Quinn, and Heidi Kewin took part and the race was won outright by our very own Ella Dorrington. Well done Ella!

Briony Holt is continuing to make excellent progress in the BOFRA fell race series with another u14 win at Hawkswick on Sunday 15th. She’s now 7th in the championship but her three successive wins put her in a strong position to challenge for a win at the end of the year.

Briony also competed in the FRA championship event at Clougha Pike on Saturday 21st June and won the u12 event, she’s now 2nd in the championship, only one race left and the distinct possibility of a tie for first.

Also at Clougha Pike were Tom Bradley and Dan Bradley who finished 19th (u14) and 36 (u12) respectively. Well done lads.

Race 7 of our Three Seasons Challenge was the Reservoir Bogs fell race over at Chiserley, Hebden Bridge on Saturday 21st June.

Eighteen juniors took part, great to see some new faces with Kaylon Cottterill and Kady Thompson taking part in their first race in a Clayton vest. A special mention has to go to our u10 runners; because of a course marking issue they had to do two laps but only found this out at the end of the first lap!

The Three Seasons Challenge results table is now up to date and there are some pictures from the day HERE

Lastly, we had some excellent results over in Blackburn yesterday, at the Witton Country Park Trail Relay. Send me any pictures that you have and I’ll do a full report on this event next week.

Pictures courtesy of Adrienne Olszewska and Woodentops.

ByAndy Armstrong

Junior Three Seasons Challenge

Juniors At Large; Sat 14th June

Our juniors have been busy over the last couple of weeks in a wide range of events.

Amelia and Lola Dugdale competed in the Bolton Tri Club Aquathlon, held at West Houghton on June 8th, coming 1st and 2nd place! Well done girls (Lola is only 6 by the way!)

Gracie Root competed in the Supersprint category at the Manchester Tri Club Junior Triathlon at Altrincham today, coming 1st girl and 2nd overall.

Curtis and Briony Holt have been busy in the FRA and BOFRA Championship events this year;

Curtis is 13th in the FRA championship with 2 races to go, after recent strong runs at West Nab & Duddon Valley.

Briony came 1st u12 girl at the FRA West Nab race on May 31st, following it with a 1st u14 girl at the BOFRA Coniston gullies event the following day!

…and if that weren’t enough…..

…she finished 2nd u12 girl at the FRA Turner uphill-only event in the Duddon valley on 7th June, again following it with another win at the BOFRA event in Kettlewell on 8th June!

Briony is now 2nd in the FRA championship (with 2 races left) and her two first place finishes have put her in 5th place in the BOFRA championship with 12 races left (best 8 results count).

Our latest Three Seasons Race was Burnley parkrun on Sat 7th June. Coinciding with the 100th event celebrations (hence all the fancy dress) we had 21 juniors running, several new PBs were recorded and everyone got very wet!
I’m sorry I haven’t the space to put all your names in this report but full results are HERE.

That’s it for this week; this is the first of a (approximately!) fortnightly round up of our junior races. More to come next time, including details of the Lancashire schools T&F event at Blackpool today.

Don’t forget to email me all your race results, apologies if you’ve emailed me already and I’ve not included it, just prod me again!

Photos courtesy of Tom Root & Woodentops

ByAndy Armstrong

junior training, parkrun

Juniors at 100th Towneley Parkrun – PICTURES

Well done to all our runners on Saturday, there’s a few pictures HERE.

Some great results; great to see new personal bests on a hot day for running, just as great to see new runners taking part. All the results are on the PARKRUN SITE

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ByAndy Armstrong

Junior Three Seasons Challenge