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- Its the New Year...
Well, that’s another one done, and what a belter 2018 was. But let’s not dwell on the past, as you have a whole new calendar to vandalise with races!
Those with a keen sense of smell will soon realise that Tim Budd did not write this report. I know, shocker! Its been decided to finally let him out, so he can actually run some of the races he spends all his time writing about! Tim’s done an excellent job with this, and these are some mighty boots to fill. There’s now a few of us doing the report on a rota, and that includes Tim, so he’s not completely off the hook! We shall return to this, but for now, grab a drink and strap yourselves in, as you lot have started 2019 with a huge bang!
Wormstones
Technically this was last year, so old news, but New Years Eve saw the return of Wormstones Fell Race. This is a cracking little race which for most of us, is ran on very familiar territory. Starting and finishing at the Beehive, the route climbs up past Wormstones to Harry Hut trig, then down past the shooting cabin. As a little sting in the tail, the route then climbs back over Brownhill to the finish. The race was really well attended and a very strong field turned out in general. For the Harriers, Joe Travis led our merry band from the off, and wasn’t seen again until the end. Behind this, some great battles ensued, firstly between Matt Crompton, Steven Pepper, Rob Sheldon, Ian Crutchley, and Pete Wallroth. Then, only a little further back, Nick Ham complete with orange tutu, was being chased down by Clive Hope and Peter Davis. Des Mitchell and Mary Jeal made up the number, not far behind. No race prizes for our lot, but I heard Nick Ham may have scooped the fancy dress award. Final results as follows:
20 JOE TRAVIS 37.26
37 STEVEN PEPPER 40.28
38 ROB SHELDON 40.56
39 IAN CRUTCHLEY 41.05
42 MATT CROMPTON 41.23
57 PETE WALLROTH 43.42
67 CLIVE HOPE 45.11
68 NICK HAM 45.18
69 PETER DAVIS 45.38
77 DES MITCHELL 48.08
80 MARY JEAL 48.57
Bowstones
In a fixture clash on New Years Eve, over the other side of the hill it was Bowstones Fell Race. Perhaps mistaking Wormstones for Bowstones, Lance Hamilton-Griffiths made the trip, and was the solo Harrier in a massive fell race field of 400. A 7 mile jaunt through Lyme Park, from Higher Poynton up to Bowstones and back. Lance came in 106th place with a time of 56.33. Top 25% is not bad at all! I understand there was free beer for finishers, so perhaps it was the rest of us got Bowstones mixed up with Wormstones….
Oudejaarsdijkenloop
This just in from Jeroen Peters….
Whilst celebrating New Year over in Holland, team Peters was made aware of a race in Aartswoud. The race was accurately named “Oudejaarsdijkenloop” which means a race over dykes on New Year’s Eve. It was an 8K (or 5M) event on some road, up and down various dykes and through farmers fields with copious quantities of the kind of droppings usually found in a farmer’s field. All this on a beautifully sunny last day of 2018.
On the start line were almost 900 runners, many on the start line making Paul Peters feel decidedly smaller than he is. Yet not to be intimidated and despite heavy going on the clay, he managed to come in 3rd place in 28:41. I was lucky to keep Emma Peters behind me in 37th place in 35:42 with Emma 4th lady in 52nd place in 37:36, blaming her performance on the 25K run the day before. Great event to finish off the year.
New Years Day Parkrun
Thanks to Lynne Taylor for the following!
Glossop had a record turn out – 190 runners including a good number of harriers, some satisfied with running just the one, some doubling up at either Hyde or Marple. Milestones were achieved by Steve Pepper – congratulations on your 50th and celebrating with a PB too. Caitlin Swan gets a massive round of applause for her 100th – she’s the youngest runner to achieve this at Glossop. There was also a PB from Riccardo Giussani at Glossop – well done.
New Years day double dippers *
Runners at Hyde were: Ian Crutchley*, Steve Pepper* (and another PB!!!), David Chrystie-Lowe*, Clive Hope (new PB), Dez Mitchell, Paul Gatley*, Riccardo Giussani*, Marie Williamson* (and a new PB), Jayne Moreton, Sarah Roberts*, Laurie Barlow*, Jonathan Haggart*
Runners at Marple were: Nick Ham (new PB), Simon Toole*, Carl Buckley, Malc Brown*, Beryl Buckley
Consolidated report is here.
Wyatt Barlow hit an impressive milestone on his run at Glossop, managing a total of 100 events, 71 Parkruns and 29 Junior Parkruns. Nice work indeed!
In other news, there were reports of a man in a frock seen at Livingston Parkrun….
Regular Parkrun
A few took advantage of the nice conditions at Glossop this week, with some notable PB’s. Fresh from Bowstones, Lance Hamilton Griffiths went sub 21. Meanwhile Josie Swan, not to be outdone by younger sibling Caitlin, slipped in under the 22 minute mark. Emma Peters blew off the new year cobwebs at 22.03. Some cracking times!
Parkrun Tourist of the week goes to David Munday, smashing round Château de Pierre de Bresse in France!
Again, the Consolidated report is here.
Last, but by no means least, we have to mention some Junior Parkrun action at Marple this week. No PB’s I believe, but some blistering times none the less!
Adam Crompton 9:30
Martha Wallroth 11:56
Merlin Wallroth 14:19
Hit the Trail
What? We’re into club champs races already!?! Indeed we are, and the 2019 road/trail champs has kicked off at Hit the Trail. Reddish Vale went from approximately red, to a very distinct blue and orange (see what I did there), as the Harriers descended in truly vast numbers. Nick Ham in a tutu was initially the Featured Photo of this report, but the epic GDH Group photo just had to replace it in the end. As that features Nick too, I don’t feel too guilty about it.
As for the race itself, the full results are not available as of yet, but I’ll be sure to post them on our Facebook page as soon as they hit. At the sharp end there were some truly outstanding GDH performances, with Kirsty Sharp 26th overall, and 2nd lady, narrowly missing out on 1st. Meanwhile in the mens race Paul Peters came 2nd overall, Chris Webb 5th, Steve Knowles 6th and Sean Phillips 9th. Not far behind this we had Nick Lord, Steve Page and Steve Crossman which pretty much guaranteed GDH got the mens team prize, if it wasn’t in the bag already. I’d be surprised if there wasn’t other category or teams prizes won, but apologies, again this is not available presently. Suffice to say, all Harriers, littered front to back through this large field, had an epic day and truly represented!
Central Lancashire Half Marathon
From the GDH Strava feed, Juke Box had a crack at Central Lancs Half over in Clifton today, and put in a pretty solid time of 2.05. I assume your given name isn’t Juke Box, and as much as I wish I knew what really is, I kind of prefer the mystery. In any case well done indeed!
Other Stuff
I believe all members will agree, the weekly report is a thoroughly enjoyable, informative, often amusing and most importantly inspiring way to round off the weekend. But its not easy to put together due the fractured information sources, Facebook, Strava, Dancing Dave in The Star etc…. Really easy to miss things. So, in an attempt to make life a bit easier, ensure we don’t miss anything, and maintain the high bar set by Tim, we are appealing for information! So we have set up an email address where you can send stuff. This could be a little race report, a photo, a link to your Facebook post or just a simple one liner about a race you did. This would help massively and avoid us missing stuff that can be easily missed! If you’re running, racing and doing interesting stuff, we genuinely want to read about it, really! Please don’t be shy!
gdhweeklyreports@gmail.com