Harriers Quartet Join a Winning Team for Enduro-24 Leeds
Summer started getting into swing and four Horwich Harriers were part of a large team taking part in the Enduro-24 event in Leeds, which consists of running as many laps as possible of an 8km course in 24 hours. Both Chris and Emma Essex-Crosby, alongside Adam and Helen MacDonald took part as Team Pressed Pennies with five friends from Penny Lane Striders and won the XL Team category with 34 laps.
The juniors put on a real show over two events, namely the Northern Championships in Derby and the Youth Development League event in Carlisle. Alistair Sharrock qualified for the final of the U20s 100m in 11.0 exactly, then ran 11.16 in the final. In the 200m he again qualified for the final and ran a PB of 21.77 whilst doing so. Aidan McKenna didn’t make the final of the 800m in a very quick heat but was pleased with 2:13:37min and clocked up a PB of 11.31m in the triple jump to come fourth. The YDL meeting in Carlisle saw a small team in red and black but it didn’t stop them running up eight first places and thirty personal best performances. Oscar Burke led the charge with three first places and three personal bests whilst hitting the national standard for both the 100m and 200m, and clearing 5 metres in the long jump. Theo Bolton got three personal bests and two first places, Kitty Crossland took a first place and two personal bests, as did Sarah Lawman, whilst Flynn Harris clocked up one first place and one personal best, as did Jack Fletcher. Ben Higgins produced arguably the most spectacular personal performance by beating his previous 1500m best time by a remarkable 16 seconds in running 5:04:4 min. This fine array of performances resulted in Horwich taking third place overall, just three points behind second.
Dan Gilbert went out on the fells in the Lakes to run the tough Buttermere Horseshoe, a 35.5km run with over 2,500m of ascent in it. A fine display of pacing meant Gilbert climbed the rankings in the second half of the race from 26th to finish 19th in 5:26:32hrs to take second V50 overall. Far away from his preferred tarmac, Steve Thomasson ran the 5km multi-terrain Kirmeslauf in the central German village of Kleinschwabhausen to keep active and just missed the 26-minute mark.
Meanwhile, the various parkruns saw a nicely scattered bunch of Harriers. Paul Murray was the furthest one afield, tackling Aviemore in 37:56 and Isaac Parker flew around Storey’s Field in Cambridge in 19:13. Oliver Hughes just crept under 25 minutes in Southport, Rob Seddon was a little more comfortably under 22 at Hyndburn, whilst Mark Swindell was marginally over 29 at Bolton. Dominic McKenna did 24:38 at Burnley, whilst the Middletons went to Burnage where Jason clocked 24:44 and Janet sneaked home one second under 32 minutes. Rob Jackson produced a fine 19:10 at Sale Water. Peel saw three Horwich runners with Gordon Stone running 31:54 and the Yates, Harry and Louis, stopping the clock after 18:49 and 21:45 respectively. Worden also saw three as Mark Seddon did 24:23 whilst Michael Salmon and Linda Webb both did 25:47 and Haigh Woodland saw the most Harriers with five as Leo and Sophie Orrell did 22:36 and 25:43 respectively, Gillian and Lynn Smith clocked 35:23 and 40:39 respectively, whilst Lesley Davidson got 41:52. Lastly, the fastest parkrun of the weekend went to Joe Mercer, taking first place at Marple in 17:01.