Vet 50s Shine at Shepherds Skyline Fell Race

With the fell seasons largely over, only individual races can be found and a couple of Harriers headed over to Todmorden for the popular Shepherd’s Skyline Fell Race. This 10k course features around a thousand feet of ascent including an entertaining and almost invariably muddy descent down Stoodley Pike before climbing back up a different path before dropping back down to the start and finish. Rob Hope came 6th overall out of 148 finishers and topped the V50 age group in 47:39 whilst making it a Horwich 1-2 in the V50 category was Julian Goudge, who finished 15th overall and still broke the 50-minute mark in 49:47.

Marcus Taylor fancied a bit of time in the Lakes – not content with doing Keswick parkrun he also decided to do one of the country’s most scenic 10-mile races in the Derwentwater 10, starting and finishing in Keswick and raced on the roads around Derwentwater. Like most Lake District races, it’s not flat and wet weather meant a couple of hairy descents on the tarmac, but Taylor gritted his teeth and took 3rd V50 in a good time of 1:07:14.

Closer to home, the Gin Pit 5 in Astley saw five wear the Horwich chevrons at this popular local five-mile trail race. Richard O’Reilly was the first Harrier home, and second V55, in a time of 35:51 whilst the other four were remarkably close together with only 13 places and less than two minutes between them. Diane Furlong was the first of these and also first F55 in 45:47, Linda Webb came home in 47:13 with Michael Salmon leaping home just two seconds behind her and Mary White crossed the line as first F75 in a very impressive 47:48.

The various parkruns saw a smattering of Harriers take their marks for their weekly 5ks. No-one crossed any national borders this time as Isaac Parker was the furthest away from Horwich by running at the suitably alliterative Coldham Common course in Cambridge, coming home in 20:33. Marcus Taylor topped the V55 category at Keswick in a rapid 18:58, whilst Brendan Bolland broke the 30-minute mark in Lancaster by seven seconds. The evergreen Tony Hesketh also went under 30 at Worsley Woods in 29:32, whilst Janet Middleton ran sans Jason at Alexandra parkrun in Moss Side and just missed the 30-minute barrier in 30:24. Dominic McKenna went to the slow, hilly Pendle course and came 16th overall in 27:22. Rob Jackson showed at Sale Water that he might have got a nice new age category, but the same old great results remained as he topped his new V60 category in a fine 19:15. Gordon Stone went to Worden and was remarkably consistent with his time of 29:17, as his previous two runs there were within less than ten seconds of it! Lastly Gillian Smith and Ed Swift went to Haigh Woodland for their hilly course, Smith was first VF75 home in 38:22 and Swift hit the tape in 56:23.