Alnwick Harriers

Report by Caro Fentiman

Thank you to everyone who participated in yesterday’s pentathlon. Huge efforts from all runners and it paid off! Alnwick Harriers came 17th out of 43 teams from across the North-East. Massive well done to OLLIE TELFER and MILLIE BREESE who both won their 800m races and were so fast that I had to send in evidence to prove how speedy they are! It’s great to see junior harriers competing and thanks again to all runners.

Next week is a re-run of the Full Tilt – how far can you run in 30 minutes? Furthest combined distance wins. There are 10 places in total so drop me an email if you’d like to participate.

Caro Fentiman

carofentiman@gmail.com

Race Report by Diana Weightman

Thank you to everyone who took part in the virtual Weetslade relays. Even though we didn’t have the hill to contend with it was still a tough 4K solo run! 186 teams took part and our first team home came in at 70th. Well done everyone 😀🏃‍♀️.

70 Diana, Jo, Stu 53.12
118 Angie, Jen, Tracey 59.01
143 Tania, Rachel, Fiona 1.04.00
145 Mary, Paul, Ruth 1.04.34

A huge effort from runners across the North-East this weekend saw a combined 16,064 miles run in 24 hours!! 337 miles came from Alnwick Harriers, placing us 25th out of 41 teams. Well done MIKE TELFER, who topped the distance with 30.1 miles, and also JO CLEMMIT, with 26.63 miles. Special mention to the junior harriers who took part, great to have the younger runners involved.

The challenge next Saturday is a PENTATHLON. Smaller team this week of 5 men and 5 women needed. Each of the following distances must be completed by 1 man and 1 woman: 800m, 1500m, 5000m, 10,000m, 1000ft climb. The first 4 need to be as flat as possible, no steps allowed in the elevation challenge. Fastest time overall wins. If you’d like to participate please get in touch – volunteers for elevation appreciated because I can’t do that one with 4 kids in tow!

Well done everyone this week – thank you for all your hard work for the team.

Caro Fentiman carofentiman@gmail.com

Report by Caro Fentiman

This week’s virtual challenge was a tough one: run the total height of Ben Nevis, Snowdon and Scafell, a whopping 11,135 feet. Team members agreed that this was a brutal event. MIKE, OLLIE and FINLAY TELFER chased the clouds in the Cheviots, along with MARY PLUMLEY, RUTH DOCTOR and MARK TYLER, who struggled to find the top due to heavy fog! CARO FENTIMAN ran to the top of Crawleyside in Weardale, a steep and unforgiving climb not improved by the poor visibility, although the sun came out once she had run down again. TRACEY SAMPLE steamed up the bank in Warkworth 18 times, KIM BRONZE found a big hill in Sheffield, IAN STEPHENSON and JO CLEMMIT tackled Simonside and JENNIFER KNIGHT and LINDA PATTERSON ran up towards Alnwick Moor. Alnwick Harriers came 12th out of 37 teams, achieving 11,698 feet in 5 hours and 41 minutes – another fabulous result for the club.

Next week is a big one and we need to fill all 24 team places: we have 24 hours to run as far as we can. You can do as many runs as you want and the bar is set high – can any team cover more than 500 miles?? If you fancy a big run between 5pm Friday 19th June and 5pm Saturday 20th June please join the Alnwick Harriers team!

Caro Fentiman

carofentiman@gmail.com

Message to Alnwick Harriers:

The Weetslade Relays are coming up later on this month on the 20th June. Alnwick Harriers have usually managed to submit a few teams. This year Claremont Road Runners are organising a virtual event, but distances remain the same at 3 x 4k. The course can be over any terrain, chosen by participants. Each runner must start from and finish at the same place. Runners in a team can run in different places as long as each leg is 4k. There are 3 to a team and each team must include a veteran and a lady and these can be the same person. You can run your leg any time between 5.00am Sat 20th June and 8.00pm Wed 24th June.

Diana Weightman has agreed to be team captain and voluntary entry fees are to go to the Hospice. If you are interested or want more details please email diana.weightman63@hotmail.com

Race report by Caro Fentiman

This week’s Greener Miles Challenge required strategic thinking, as competitors had to run as high and as far as they could in 30 minutes. It quickly became clear that elevation was the point winner, so there was a lot of scurrying around trying to find the best hills in the area. 

Alnwick Harriers achieved a fantastic result, coming 11th out of 59 teams from across the North East. A strong team saw OLLIE and MIKE TELFER scaling the Cheviot, TANIA CONWAY and RACHEL HEELEY racing through Thrunton Woods, MARY PLUMLEY and RUTH DOCTOR topping Simonside, CARO FENTIMAN running up to Alnwick golf course again and again, TRACEY SAMPLE chasing a hill in Amble, JO CLEMMIT battling windy conditions in Swarland and JENNIFER KNIGHT doing hill reps in Alnwick. Special mention must go to junior harrier, Ollie Telfer, who placed 3rd overall and was the 2nd male competitor. This is a big result for the team, well done and thank you to everyone who participated.

The challenge next Saturday is to complete the equivalent of the 3 Peaks – 11,135 feet – in the shortest time possible. We are allowed teams of up to 20, half must be women. If you’d like to run, please email me and let me know how many feet you can commit to. Entry is £1 each and Diana Weightman is kindly paying in advance and will collect the money later. Remember that speed is the key to our success so a short high burst is going to be a point winner!

Caro Fentiman

carofentiman@gmail.com

You will all know that we can now meet outside for exercise with 5 people from different households. This is great news but we have to keep the 2 metre social distancing rule at all times. We are now waiting for guidance from England Athletics as to when and how we can resume coaching in groups. We will keep you informed as to when our club can resume training with coached sessions.

We thank you all for your patience and adhering to the rules we have been given.

Your Coaching Team at Alnwick Harriers.

Report by Caro Fentiman

Another week, another Greener Miles Challenge, this time requiring team members to run 4 miles as fast as they could but starting and ending in the same place. This was to try and reduce any advantage incurred by elevation for those runners starting at the top of a very big hill and just belting it down to the bottom. An enthusiastic team of Alnwick Harriers, RUTH DOCTOR, MARY PLUMLEY, CARO FENTIMAN, JO CLEMMIT, GEORGE WILLIAMS, TRACEY SAMPLE, PAUL DELLBRIDGE, JENNIFER KNIGHT, KIM BRONZE and DIANA WEIGHTMAN, completed the challenge in a combined time of 344 minutes to finish 34th out of 70 teams. A fabulous effort and thank you to everyone who participated.

Next Saturday, Points Mean Prizes! The next challenge is a 30-minute run as far as you can and/or as high as you can. Points for both distance and elevation. Please see https://greenermilesrunning.co.uk/virtual-lockdown-team-challenges for more details and let me know by 5pm on Thursday if you would like to join the team.

Caro Fentiman

carofentiman@gmail.com

Report by Caro Fentiman

The Big One!

18 hardy harriers took part in another virtual running event organised by Greener Running Miles this weekend. The challenge was to run for 24 hours within 24 hours, with the winning team being the one that ran the furthest. With a strong team including MIKE TELFER, CLAIRE TELFER, JO POWELL, DIANA WEIGHTMAN, MARY PLUMLEY, RUTH DOCTOR, MARK TYLER, JO CLEMMIT, IAN STEPHENSON, CARO FENTIMAN, TRACEY SAMPLE, PAUL GODDEN, LISA BASTON, KAREN PRICE, LINDA PATTINSON, TANIA CONWAY, KAREN KELLY and GRAHAM SYERS, our total distance came in at 155.02 miles. Distances and locations varied, with Mike, Ian, Diana and Lisa racing across the county for hours and Caro blasting out 50 minutes on her back lane. Mary and Ruth battled strong winds on the Aln Valley railway line and Mark did a speedy 30 minutes following recovery from a knee injury. 

Alnwick Harriers placed 28 out of 57 teams from across the North-east. There was no limit on team members and the winning team, Tipsy Tynedale’s Scrambled Legs, achieved 207.42 miles with 65 runners!

This was another fun event and a great opportunity to be part of something bigger than our own backyards. Thank you to everyone who participated and look out for the next challenge….

Race report by Caro Fentiman

I stumbled across Greener Miles Running on Strava – an environmentally friendly trail running event company based in Gateshead that has been organising weekly lockdown events attracting almost a thousand runners across the North-East.

This week Alnwick Harriers entered a team for the 50k Time Trial. Teams of 10, including at least 5 women, had to run 50k as fast as possible. To keep it simple, each team member ran 5k, with runners keeping close to home and following social distancing rules. I’ve been doing laps of my back lane so I can keep an eye on the kids, but other Harriers managed to escape a little further from their front door and enjoy the bright Northumberland weather.

Out of an impressive 95 teams, the Alnwick Harriers team consisting of Lisa Baston, Kim Bronze, Jo Clemmit, Tania Conway, Caro Fentiman, Linda Patterson, Ruary Slater, Ian Stephenson, Mark Tyler and Diana Weightman came in 56th, with a time of 4 hours 22 minutes 40 seconds. The winning time was 3 hours 8 minutes and 30 seconds, with the final team coming in at just under five and a half hours.

Whilst running can be an escape for many of us from the noise in our lives and in our heads, there is something lovely about being part of a running community, and virtual events such as these have enabled people to belong to something bigger than their isolated runs.

The next Greener Miles event is The Big One starting at 5pm on Friday 22nd May. Teams of at least 10 need to run for 24 hours in total: the biggest cumulative distance wins. If you’d like to be involved please email me on carofentiman@gmail.com and let me know the longest time that you’d be prepared to run for in 24 hours. I’ll send out team details on Thursday 21st May.

Caro Fentiman 17.05.20