Race Report Round-up

Your Race Reporter returns, coming live from a rather drizzly Amersham, with a roundup of racing from the last few weekends.

The weekend of 8 - 9 March was a busy one. Alongside the Inter-Country cross country championships in Nottingham (check out Steve P’s report here), Harriers were also competing in the XNRG Amersham Ultra, the Cambridge and Inverness Halfs and the Hardwick X-Stream. ​

A mention first of all for Doug Smith, who did the devilish double that was the XNRG 25k on the Saturday, followed by Hardwick on the Sunday, clocking times of 2.54.39 and 1.03.07, respectively and clocking up some 35k of hard off-road racing for the weekend. Huge congratulations are also due to Lauren Mayot. In training for the Manchester Marathon, Lauren was first lady over the 25k distance at XNRG in a time of 2.31.29. To round off our reporting from the 25k, Honorary Harrier, Alison Dawson, completed the event in 4.07.57. In the 50k Paul McCarthy led the Club home in 5.15.53, also coaching ultra debutant Tom Finch round in a very creditable 5.21.02. They were joined by Archie Bellamy (6.20.12) and Tim Dutfield (7.08.12).

The sun shone bright and the water crossings were shallow at the Hardwick X-Stream on 9 March. Doug was joined on the day by Ben Hannen (43.31), Yours Truly (46.49, 3rd lady), Frank Gaymond  (50.11), Helen Cholawo (53.24) and Mark Fry (1.00.21).

In half marathon news, there was a sizeable Chiltern contingent at the popular Cambridge Half. Aran Davidson led the Club home in 1.10.23. Katie Repper put in a very impressive sub-90 performance to finish in 1.25.44, alongside Dad James in 1.25.48. Joining them were: Steve Emery (1.41.54), Ed Wright (1.42.52), Christine Taylor (1.51.58), Glen Martin (1.55.41), Ade McCormack (1.57.38), Tamsin Finch (2.12.18) and Jennifer Emery (2.22.50). Up in Inverness Allan Cairns earned himself a half marathon PB of 1.41.48, coming a very respectable 581st out of 2,600 runners. On 16 March Tom Wright and Jessie Keighley ran the Surrey Half, Woking, in 1.29.59 and 1.39.11, respectively.

The last two weekends have seen the return of the popular marathon prep 20 milers. At the MK Festival of Running on 16 March Mike ‘Tiny’ Turney was 1st V60 in a time of 2.17.43. A glutton for punishment, he was in action again at the Hillingdon 20 today, finishing 3rd in his age category in 2.21.38. Adam Shute matched that feat, finishing 3d V40 in 2.00.10, while Ed Wright came home in 2.42.40. A further five Harriers completed the Oakley 20 today. Official results are not yet available, so the below come from Strava: Chris Pitkin (3.31.18), Ben Hannen (3.33.06), Sylvia Moss (2.50.55), Abi Askey (2.50.55) and Richard Moss (2.29.35).

And finally, there was a great turnout for the Club at the Ashridge Boundary Run yesterday, 22 March - a 16 mile trail race on the Ashridge estate. Jenny Bizley was first Harrier home in 2.31.42, joined by: Tom Wright (2.59.10), Tom Powell (3.02.32), Giles Greenhalgh (3.04.23), Julia Aliaj (3.16.30), Lyndsey Bill (3.16.31), Helen Cholawo (3.16.33), Nick Talbot (3.26.52) and the man himself - you guessed it - Doug Smith (3.26.52).

COMING UP LOCALLY: Last Friday of the Month 5k, Brighton Marathon, Thames Towpath 10, White Horse Half Marathon, Flitwick 10k, Maidenhead Easter 10 and the Beaconsfield 5. Check out the Club Calendar for more details and further events.

A NOTE ABOUT RACE REPORT: as previously trailed, Race Report will be focussing on ‘major’ local races where there are (likely to be) numbers of Harriers running, rather than coming out every week. However, we still want to hear about other events that you may have been taking part in, to make sure that we continue to have an engaging and diverse report to read. If you have done an event, or know that someone else has, ping a quick email to [email protected] to make sure it is included in a future iteration of Race Report.