Four Halifax Harriers were amongst the 50,000 runners at this weekend’s London Marathon. Lucy Quemeneur led the quartet home, finishing in 3:07:26. London regular, Angela Clarke, was just outside the four hour mark in 4:00:33. David Ingle and Martin Haigh completed the 26.2 mile course in 4:33:38 and 5:44:22 respectively.
Further afield, Hanni Maeer, represented the club at the Leipzig Marathon in Germany on Sunday. Hanni, who was using the race as a training run for some upcoming longer distance races, finished in 4:10:18.
Ryan Barker also took on the marathon distance this weekend, but away from the roads. Ryan ran the Tissington Trail Marathon in the Peak District along the dismantled railway, finishing in eighth position in 3:20:17 and was second in the MV50 category.
Meanwhile nine Harriers took part in the Leeds Running Festival at Roundhay Park. Eight were competing in the 5k event and were earning points in the club’s Road Race Championships. Stephen Rainbow took second place overall in 19:43 with James O’Rourke close behind in third (20:00). Steve Fitz-Costa also came in the top ten, taking sixth place in 23:05. All three were first in their age group with Sharon Cousen also winning her age group (F50) in 26:41. Indeed, all eight Harriers finished in the first three in their respective age categories. Other Harriers results; Nigel Jamieson (25:35), Deborah Kirkbride (31:12), Chris Kirkbride (31:12) and Steve Denniss (31:46). Clare Fountain completed the 10k race in 1:17:10.
Last weekend, Will Carver and Rachael Beaumont both put in very strong performances at the Manchester Marathon. Will finished in 3:12:42 whilst Rachael completed in 3:33:42, setting a new club record for the F55 age group.
Congratulations to all our runners!
Photo of Martin Haigh, David Ingle and Angela Clarke at the London Marathon
Unfortunately, until further notice, we are unable to take any new under 11 juniors for the 6pm session on Tuesday evenings due to this session being full. Hopefully we will be able to accept new members in the near future.
For the 50th rendition of this iconic undulating 20 mile road race from Princess Mary Stadium, Cleckheaton, the runners were blessed with blue skies and sun after last year’s cancellation following the snow!
The organisers announced these were the best conditions they had ever had, hence the faster times.
The course is extremely pretty in parts, especially around Hartshead village.
There were 130 runners and the race was won by Jed Bartlett of Hallamshire in 1.50.48! (Wow). The first lady was Laura Hesketh of Clayton in 2.14.13.
Six Halifax Harriers ran. The first four were very close. Sarah Louise Cumber was surprised to take the v50 ladies’ club record (2.25.59), followed by Tom Paget (2.27.30), James O’Rourke (2.28.51). and Simon Johnson (2.33.07).
David Ingle (this race being a firm favourite of his) was next in (2.50.03) and to complete the team was Angela Clarke (3.11.28). Angela had an eventful race after helping a participant who had had an accident enroute!