At the Harriers Annual Dinner on Friday night, Raymond Hall was presented with an inscribed silver salver and honorary life membership in recognition of his many years of outstanding service to the club.
The Dinner was held at Queensbury Golf club and everyone enjoyed the three course meal, which was followed by the presentation of the senior prizes by Mark Gaughan. The awards included the Road Race Leagues, Fell Leagues and Cross Country awards.
The Chairman’s Trophy is awarded to a member who has made a significant contribution to the club. This year it was awarded to Helen Keighley, who unfortunately was not present to collect it.
The Pearson Trophy for Endeavour was presented to Kirsty Carver for her running with a smile attitude.
The most improved 10k runner was Erika Nightingale.
The winners in the Cross Country Championships were Verity Clements (female under 20), Michael Gaughan (senior men), Bethan Davies (senior female), Katrina Oddy (female veteran) Stephen Fitz-Costa (male veteran).
In the Fell Challenge the ladies winner was Jane Hobson and the male winner Will Carver.
The Road Race Challenge is split into 5 divisions. Division A winner was Niall Smith, Division B winner Stephen Fitz-Costa, Division C winner Paul Hopkinson, Division D winner Stefanie Dickinson, Division E winner Kirsty Carver.
Three Harriers competed in the Ian Roberts Memorial fell race on Sunday; the first event in the club’s 2022/23 fell league. The route starts above Marsden, covering 6.4 miles and taking in a total ascent of 850’. It was sunny but with a cold wind, which didn’t feel so bad once the runners got started. The route has a bit of everything. The ground was soft and quite level on the tops so that runners could enjoy the views without having to watch their feet. However, the final couple of miles had some steep, boggy, rocky downhills and the grassy tussocks were a nightmare to navigate. The climb up Pule Hill was a challenge, but that’s what fell running is about! Jane Hobson led the trio home, finishing in 75th place in a time of 74:17 followed by Hazel Berrett (90th in 77:13) and Sam Layfield - making her fell racing debut - in 96th in 81:11.
Also on Sunday, Will Carver took on the highly demanding Heptonstall Fell Race. The route is over much of the best of the local landscape around Heptonstall and the Upper Calder Valley, covering 15.4 miles and more than 3,000' of climbing. Will finished in 2:34:01 in 95th place in a very strong field.
The next race in the fell league is Orchan Rocks in Todmorden on the evening of Tuesday 26th April.
Four Harriers ran the scenic and flat 20 mile race at Trimpell. This race is traditionally a warm up race for the Spring Marathon season. The conditions for the race were near perfect except for the occasional gust of wind, which always seemed to be into the 303 runners faces. Debbie Kirkbride set a new F60 Club Record in a time of 3:27:19. James O'Rourke was the first Harriers finisher in 2:20:53, Tom Paget was next in 2:22:23 (PB) and Paul Hopkinson finished in 2:54:31. It was also good to see eight runners from our neighbours, the Sowerby Snails, at the race.