North West Counties road relays, Birchwood, 11th September 2021
The big event of the week was Saturda’ys North West and Counties road relays, held at Birchwood Park in Warrington, This is one of the most prestigious events in the road running calendar, attracting some of the best runners around, with club pride taking an equal standing to individual glory and the Harriers were represented by two senior men’s teams. The A team comprised Mark Lee, Rob Worsey, Simon Collins and Steve Hallas, and finished 37th on the day but the B team was hit by several late dropouts, leaving on new signing Paul Jeffries. Despite this, Paul still made the journey to Warrington and ran 24:18 which would have placed the B team in 56th at that point.
Switchback Valley trail race Tuesday 7th September 2021
Earlier in the week, on the Tuesday, the second race in the Pennine trail race series was staged, the Swtichback Valley trail race. Four Harriers were in attendance with Wes Wilkinson putting in an excellent performance on his return from injury to take 6th place in 35:27. Next in was Simon Collins in 9th (36:16), followed by Will Metcalf in 13th (37:42) and finally, Rob Worsey ensured a great team performance by taking 20th place in 41:08. Former Harrier Chris Tully was also in attendance finishing 8th in 36:04.
Rivington Pike fell race, Saturday 11th September 2021
The traditional Easter Saturday Rivington Pike Fell Race, considered the second oldest amateur fell race was delayed for 2021. This year’s race was held in memory of the local running legend Ron Hill. Ben Naylor, in his first season of fell running, finished an excellent 17th place in 21:33. Phil Lakeland (Vet 60) was 196th in 40:35. Other former Harriers running were Oliver Heaton, now Bowland FR (6th) and Steve Forster, Wharfedale H. in 109th place.
Track and Field action
Elsewhere on Tuesday, U17 Millie Walton was in action at the Trafford Grand Prix where she took first place in race 4 of the 800m events, in a new PB time of 2:19.43. On Wednesday it was the club’s 5000m track championship race with Luke Suffolk taking the win in 16:37. Sam Evans was second in 17:02 with Mark Lee in 3rd in 18:07.
Road Running
The Blackpool festival of running was held over the weekend, with Preston’s Ross McKelvie winning the 5k in 18:12 and David Kerfoot finishing the marathon in 5:31:13 to place 7th in the Vet-60 age category. The Catford 5km was held on the Saturday with Vet-60 runner Ken Beazley finishing 20th in 20:56, Peter Cowling placing 23rd in 21:15 and Steve Boardman finishing 26th in 21:35. Alan Littler ran a season’s best of 25.03 and Maureen Kirkby finished in 27.43 Sunday saw a host of half marathon events, with Rob Affleck taking 38th place at Wilmslow in 01:17:38, Alex Venables finishing in 36th at the Cheshire half (1:23:13) with Stephen Mort in 112th (1:30:07). Finally Ian Patterson (1:49:55) and Julie Tyrer (2:19:23) completing the Liverpool Skyline half.