We had a great turnout for Race 8; seventeen juniors made the trip to Chorley on Friday 5th June for a fast 1 mile course within Astley Park. George Pier was the outright winner by 15 seconds and Briony Holt came home first girl in 8th overall. Well done to all of you.
Members of Clayton-le-Moors Harriers were in action across many disciplines and in a range of events over the weekend.
New recruit, Anthony Gotts, a wheelchair athlete, took part in a number of events from 100m -5000m over two days at the England Athletics Open UK/IPC Meeting at Bedford Stadium. On Saturday, Anthony enjoyed a clear victory in his 800m race, just 0.1sec outside his personal best and finished fourth in the 5000m in a time of 13:11. On Sunday, Anthony set PBs in the 200m, 400m and, most notably in the 1500m when he improved by a massive 26 seconds.
Meanwhile, closer to home, Club President Dave Scott set a PB at the Burnley Parkrun on Saturday morning, before winning his age group at the Kelbrook Fell Race in the afternoon – at the tender age of 70! Other notable Clayton men’s performances at Kelbrook came from Dave Walker (7th), Matt Perry (12th), Tom Brewster (15th ), Dave Motley (17th), and Paul Hesketh (19th/2nd M45), while John Wilcock was first M50 and Steve Breckell first M60 in his first race for some time. Not to be outdone, the ladies also shone: Vicky Heys (1st F40), Irene Roche (1st F55), Yvonne Wickham (1st F50) and Karin Goss (1st F60).
Over at the Wharfedale Off Road Marathon, Martin Terry finished in 15th place to take the M50 prize and there were good performances from Ivan Whigham (33rd), Bev and Peter Thompson (80th & 81st), while in the Half Marathon Jeff Pickup took first prize in the M60 category, with Dawn Richards and Lorna Balmer finishing in the top half of the field.
Also on Saturday, seven men made the journey north to compete in the first Lakeland Classic Long Race of the year: Duddon Valley Fell Race. First Clayton home, in 26th place (2nd M50) was Mike Wallis, followed by Dave Naughton (35th) and Andy Orr (38th). Chasing Andy hard all the way were Andy Robinson (39th) – first in the over 60 category – and Pete Booth (42nd;2nd M60). Richard Bellaries completed the set in 77th place while Alex Braysford was unfortunately forced to retire.
7 members were at the Pen-y-Ghent FR on Saturday and a contingent of ladies made the long journey to Kirk Yetholm in the Scottish borders to contest the British Championship FR.
On Sunday morning about 1600 runners lined up in Burnley town centre to take part in the Jane Tomlinson Pennine 10K Road Race. In-form Matt Lalor had another superb run to take second place, while Laura Hesketh was first female to cross the line, in 39th place overall. Despite his exertions at Kelbrook on Saturday Tom Brewster was 5th, followed by John Roche (17th; 1st M45), Alex Cran 18th, Richard Briscoe (20th) and Andrew Foster (30th). Many other Harriers took part in the event, helping to raise money for the Pendleside Hospice and other deserving charities.
Saturday June 1st saw the juniors again take part in the Parkrun at Towneley with many posting impressive pb’s over the 5k course. The juniors have been putting in an enormous amount of hard work at training each week which is showing with their times rapidly improving. Jordan McDonald was the first Clayton male to finish in a great time of 18:53 mins. Briony Holt aged only 11 years finished an amazing 24th and first female overall in a time of 21.14 mins. Well done to ALL of you for your efforts.
The June ‘Harrier’ is now out with news from 3 continents: Africa – Marathon des Sables with Phil Hanson, North America – Peter & Sandi Browning’s progress up the east coast of the USA and Europe – Ali Dugdale & friends’ cycling adventures on Mallorca. Plus all the usual features, results and fixtures. June Newsletter 2013
The first race in this year’s summer series is The Ogden round at 7.00pm on Tuesday 21st May from Barley – registration on the car park.
Here is a map of the course: Ogden Round Summer Series
The May Newsletter contains news of Pete & Sandi Browning’s progress up the east coast of the USA and a report on the Anniversary Waltz Fell Race, as well as all the usual features: Covering Old Ground, Milestones, results and fixtures.May Newsletter 2013
Friday 12th April, 2013. Cabin 4, Jonathan Dickinson State Park, Florida (about half way between Miami and Daytona)
Well as we’ve been over in the USA for over a week now, we thought it was time we let people know how we are going on. After Dave Hindle dropped us off at Manchester Airport (thanks pal), the Delta Airlines flights were ok, but we eventually reached Miami an hour or so late at around 8.30pm local time. No problem with the transfer to the hotel and then straight to bed. Miami is a huge modern city, very clean and prosperous and it positively glints in the hot Florida sunshine. The temperatures were up in the mid 80’s, quite a contrast with the Manchester we left behind at not much above freezing. We spent three days in Miami Beach, looking round the city, collecting the bikes, and paddling in the warm Atlantic Ocean which was just across the road from our hotel. As most people will know, due to Sandi’s MS, she can’t ride a regular bike any longer, so she has bought a tricycle, with a handy electric motor attached to it. On a full charge, this will give us around 20 miles, plus whatever distance she can manage to pedal. The battery is recharged every night wherever we happen to be staying, so we have a further 20 miles range for the following day. Fortunately there are enough motels around (so far!) to accommodate our limited range. I have bought a traditional workhorse bike and carry all our belongings in front (thanks Pete Hindle) and rear panniers. We’ve been on the road five days now and covered just under 100 miles. Temperatures have been fairly constant in the 80’s, with a burning sun, so perhaps it’s a good thing we are not aiming to do 60 miles a day!
The route so far has in all honesty, been a bit dull, as we have ridden out of the greater Miami area, passing row upon row of magnificent concrete and steel hotels and condo’s, populated by the very well to do. We’ve also passed many magnificent family homes – god knows what they cost- with three cars on the drive and a massive motorboat moored on the creek opposite. However we’ve now left Miami behind and are seeing a bit more of the Atlantic, which seems surprisingly blue. We’ve just taken our first day off from cycling to spend two nights in a “cabin” at this state park. Cabin does it no justice whatsoever, as it has all mod cons including air conditioning, but it is very peaceful away form the busy highway. This afternoon we experienced our first Florida thunderstorm which was very spectacular indeed, with tremendous lightning, deafening claps of thunder, and heavy rain. We just got back from a canoe ride up the local river in time. Anyway, it’s back on the road tomorrow for us as we’ve still got 2181 miles to go before we get to Boston.
Peter and Sandi Browning
Clayton-le-Moors Harriers scored a wonderful 1-2 at Saturday’s wet and windy Langdale Daffodil 10K road race. Barnoldswick’s Tom Brewster battled his way along flooded roads to record his first ever race win in 35:39, crossing the line just 22 seconds before club mate, Breton Holdsworth, recent winner of the Dentdale 14, in second place on this occasion. Tom’s win is the culmination of over two years of hard training that has seen him improve continuously and has included recent winning performances at the Burnley Parkrun. The icing on the cake was an 11th place finish (1st M55) for Tom’s dad, Roger – himself a winner of many races in the past – which gave Clayton Harriers the team award.
Meanwhile, three female members made the long journey to Northern Ireland to contest the first British Fell Race Championship counter, based at Silent Valley in the Mourne Mountains. After 10 miles and 4500’ of ascent over very rough terrain and in very testing conditions, our first counter was Jean Brown in 84th position (14th female) in 2:17:12, ably supported by Wendy Dodds (139th; 1st F60) and Katy Thompson (157th). Their combined performance was good enough to give them 3rd position in the female vets’ teams.
Finally, much further afield, Phil Hanson completed the gruelling Marathon des Sables in the Sahara Desert. Phil finished the 160 mile event in under 37 hours, which gave him 319th place out of 970 finishers (over 1000 started).
Well, the clocks have gone forward and lighter evenings are here. Alleluia! The latest newsletter features a report on the Stan Bradshaw Pendle Round by Wayne MacIntosh, plus a ‘snapshot’ of a recent Burnley Park run. There is also an update of the club championships and details of the summer training venues.
On Saturday, fifteen members of Clayton-le-Moors Harriers made the short trip to take part in the Heptonstall Fell Race, a ‘B’ long race of 15½ miles (25K) with 3000 feet of climb around the moors and trails of Hardcastle Crags. First Clayton home, in fourth place was Matt Lalor, in a time of 2:05:08, just 7 minutes behind the winner, Adam Osborne of Leeds City. Also in the prizes was Anna Kelly, who was third female to finish, first LV50 in a new record time for her age category, in 100th place overall out of 225 finishers.
Earlier in the day, Tom Brewster had finished in first place and set a new PB – 18.01 – at the Burnley Parkrun, a 5K run held each Saturday morning in Towneley Park. Not to be outdone, Clayton juniors Chris Archer and Eleanor Root also set personal bests, as did Tony Scott, Christine Leathley and Yvonne Wickham, who are not juniors any more!
Meanwhile, in the southern Lake District, winner of last week’s Dentdale Run Breton Holdsworth maintained his good form by gaining a very creditable 7th place at the Cartmel Trail Race, a very wet and muddy course along the tracks and trails to the north of Morecambe Bay.
Last, but by no means least, Steve Biscomb completed the Ultrafit St Annes 10 mile road race in 1:10:00, a time which gave him 72nd place, 9th in his age group. Yvonne Wickham completed her second run of the weekend in 181st place (5th F45) in a field of 255 competitors.