Malcs race report from August….
Re-count put Ladies back in Third
The final race in the Booth Decorators Summer League finished in extremely warm conditions for the 247 runners from the eleven clubs involved. Going into the final race, after the earlier four races, the club would have needed some extremely strong running and more than our fair share of luck to overhaul the eventual winners.
On the night the men finished third, the ladies came seventh while the team overall finished fourth. The club was a little down in numbers in this race but nevertheless an excellent turnout. So after the five races Belper once again, for the third consecutive year were runners-up to the strong Heanor Running Club. The men came second and after a re-count, with an error in the third race, the ladies hung on to the third position.
In the actual race it was good to see Gordon and Dale pushing the leaders with Gordon finishing fourth and Dale fifth. Further down came Alex Duthie and Edward James in 17th and 25th positions. Oh by the way Alex, congratulations, nice to see the family out. The ever consistent Krishna was our next finisher at 35 with Saul two places behind in 37th place. The final counter for the men was probably a surprise to many but in his third race for the club in 41st place was Laurie Illingworth. He along with his brother Adam who also had a good run, finishing in 64th place helps bring the average age of the team down.
There were only three Harriers this year who managed to run in all five races, Edward James, Andy Rose and Jack Daykin. We had two runners making their debuts for the club Lia Ottosen and Matt Harrison, who did not get a disc on the finishing line, so would have had an even better place in the race than the position registered. Liz Turner ran only her second race for the club, along with Jo Southcott, Linda Simmonds, Vicki and Adam Kirk, Jonathan Saunders, Gavin Elliott and Laurie and Adam who all had their first season with the club and with the rest of us the future looks very optimistic.
It was also very pleasing to have such a good number of our runners out at all the races. We averaged around 35 over the five races which helps to keep the club seriously competitive in the league. The only drawback to the season is the loss of Simon Merwood who has left the area. Over the years he has been with the Harriers he has improved greatly and been an excellent member of the club both in competition and on club nights. Simon’s performances in the longer distances particularly the marathon have made good reading and I am sure we will all be following the results in the future to see your performances improving even more. All the best Simon and we hope to see you again in the not too distant future.
Finally to all our members the first cross-countries are in October and to all our new runners who have not experienced an off-road race come and give it a try. Hopefully the fixtures for both leagues will be on the web-site in the coming week.
Malc