Alnwick Harriers

It’s our Annual General Meeting on Wednesday 18th November at 7.30pm which, due to Covid restrictions, will this year be held ‘virtually’ via Zoom.

Members are invited to join the meeting by using the following link.

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/85081935068?pwd=RVQ0SUJUelhXbUROSXAxeisvcmE5dz09

Magnificent Bamburgh Castle played host to Sunday’s Run Northumberland Castles half marathon and 10K. Five Alnwick Harriers were amongst the 152 runners to endure strong gales and battle their way around the half marathon course. A particularly testing last few miles along a wild and blustery coast, coupled with a final climb up through the village, made the finish line a welcome sight! Storming round in a very impressive 1 hour and 38 minutes was Lisa Baston who finished third fastest lady of the day! Next for Alnwick Harriers came Karen Leeson in 1.57.56 bagging a thoroughly well deserved PB along the way. Joanne Clemmit, attempting to avoid thinking about a grumbling hamstring, came home in an extremely admirable time of a whisker over 2 hours. Almost matching Joanne’s time was half marathon first timer Caro Fentiman who was spotted comfortably tackling the final climb up into the village with ease! A solid performance from Mairi Campbell in 2:14:07 completed Alnwick Harriers quintet in the half marathon. The Bamburgh 10K followed a slightly different route that also included some ferocious doses of headwind. Leading the six Alnwick Harriers home in a field of 155 runners was Dave Richardson in a blistering time of 34.48 which landed him in a fantastic third place – a mere 49 seconds behind the winner! Jim Allan had a cracking run in 40.03 finishing in 24th place and coming 2Nd in the V50 category. Next for the club was Jo Powell delighted to bag a PB of 45.13 closely followed by speed veteran Carole Page, who took the V60 crown in 45.25. Good runs were also had by Tony Jackson known to his running friends as Terry.  The effervescent George Williams finished a superb 3Rd in the V65+ category.

Results: Half Marathon:

46 Lisa Baston 1:38:02

98 Karen Leeson 1:57:56

106 Joanne Clemmit 2:01:08

108 Caro Fentiman 2:01:18

138 Mairi Campbell 2:14:07

10k

3 Dave Richardson 34.48

24 Jim Allan 40.03

51 Jo Powell 45.13

53 Carole Page 45.25

79 Tony Jackson 49.18

128 George Williams 1:00:09

Alnwick Harriers are hoping to be able to submit a few teams for the Virtual Norman Woodcock Relays held between Saturday 21st and Saturday 28th November .. Details from Elswick Harriers are below.

If you are interested in taking part, please email Diana Weightman at diana.weightman63@hotmail.com

Elswick Harriers are pleased to announce the event of the virtual Norman Woodcock 2-mile relays that are to be run on or between Saturday 21st November to Saturday 28th November 2020.

This year our virtual relay event will welcome entries from clubs across the North East with teams of 3; consisting of at least one lady and one vet 35+ (can be the same person), each running 2 mile to give a combined total distance of 6 miles.

There will not be a set entry fee, however we are using this event to raise money for improving the dementia and garden facilities at Pavilion Court Care Home, where local Elswick legend, Colin Bolton lives.

The link to the Just Giving Page for this fundraiser is: https://www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/elswickharriers-normanwoodcock-relays

As this event is to raise funds for someone that means so much to us, we would gratefully receive donations from anyone, not just those taking part.

If your club is interested please contact me by commenting below or via private message, further details and team sheets will then be emailed out to a nominated person within your club.

Please feel free to spread the word.

Richard Houghton

Mens Captain

Elswick Harriers

Beamish Hall 10k Trail Race.  11 Oct 2020
Three Alnwick Harriers travelled to the stunning grounds of the outstanding Beamish Hall Hotel in Durham to take part in this testing 10k trail race organised by Wild Deer events.
A staggered start was in place in order to keep to the current social distance guidelines.
A bright and sunny autumn morning, varied terrain and scenic woodland awaited the 240 runners taking part. 
First back for the club, in 48th  place was Jo Powell in a time of 52.08
Next through the finish and well inside the top half, was Karen Leeson in a time of 1.00:24
New club member Georgina Tetley- Paul came home in 1.19:52 and commented that the approximate 580 feet of climb spread over the course made the beautiful Kielder 10k feel like a pancake ! 
Results:
48 Jo Powell (52.08)
108 Karen Leeson (1.00:24)
214 Georgina Tetley-Paul (1.19:52)

It was another busy weekend of athletics for Alnwick athletes with competitions in Darlington and Morpeth.

Talia & Leila Thompson travelled to Darlington on Saturday both competing in the shot put and winning their categories. Leila managing a personal best throw of 9.88m to rank her 2nd in the UK!

On Sunday 5 Harriers competed at Morpeth. On the track Ollie Telfer & Lillia Purvis ran the 800m. Lilia managed a pb of 2 min 40s and Ollie (U20) had an excellent race winning the 800m overall across both senior and junior categories. Ollie ran an excellent time of 1 min 59s.

In the field events Leila Thompson (U13) won her age group & managed a new discus PB of 25.01, & Taila (U13) in her first discus competition threw well. Talia went on to win the shot put & Lillia Purvis managed another good set of throws in the U15 category.

In the javelin Antje Hall (U17) threw an excellent personal best of 28.65m to win her event and Leila had another good competition to win the U13 category.

23 rd August 2020

Despite the soggy August afternoon, two female Alnwick Harriers enjoyed a  challenging but fun 10k trail in the grounds of the outstanding 1000 acre Slaley Hall estate near Hexham.
Jo Clemmit and Jo Powell laced up their trail shoes eager to take part in this socially distanced trail race organised by Wild Deer events. 
The race was allowed to go ahead due to a staggered start pen system being in place.
The rain came down heavy on this undulating course which included some extremely wet trails and forest tracks on the edge of this championship golf course.
Jo Clemmit finished very comfortably inside the top half of the 139 finishers in 54 th place despite having to stop and wait for someone to tell her the way ! 
Jo Powell delighted to be taking part in an event as lockdown eases, finished third female in 24 th place.
As the rain eased and the sun made an appearance, runners were rewarded with tea or coffee and a hot sandwich on the hotel terrace overlooking the finish.
Big smiles on many happy faces showed that these socially distanced runs can go some way to getting us taking part and having fun in organised events again.
Results:
Jo Powell (24th) 49.54
Jo Clemmit (54 th) 57.51

Alnwick Harriers plan to resume group training sessions on Wednesday 27th August. Members are asked to meet OUTSIDE Willowburn Leisure Centre at 7.00pm. Note that toilet facilities and changing facilities will not be available.

Alnwick Harriers do have a policy in place for training during Covid-19 restrictions and this is below.

Please ensure that you read this document and are familiar in particular with the guidelines for athletes before attending training.

Alnwick Harriers looks forward to welcoming you all back on Wednesday!

Report by Caro Fentimam

Congratulations to everyone who joined the team for this final virtual event. Alnwick Harriers placed 11th out of 22 teams and clocked up an excellent 177 miles and almost 30,000 feet in elevation. There were some really great individual performances: Mike Telfer ran more than a marathon and climbed over 12,000 feet, a fabulous effort. Sue Skirrow ran over 10 miles, her furthest run for some time, and Flo Fentiman was our youngest competitor at 5 years old, running a mile in just over 10 minutes.

Thanks to everyone who has taken part in these events over the last few lockdown months. Special thanks to Sue Skirrow and Diana Weightman for their support in organising. Looking forward to running with everyone for real very soon.

Caro Fentiman

As the weekend arrives for what would have been our 41st event I would like to recognize the date and what would have been if we did not have this dreadful virus impacting all we do.
I am particularly disappointed in having booked the weather for Sunday …..15 degrees, sunny with possible cloud later (to keep you all cool) and a light breeze and we are not able to take advantage of it. ☀️🏃‍♀️💕I will just have to book the same for next year and hope that we get the booking accepted!!

Thank you to everyone 👏🏻who has supported our club by holding onto your slots for next year’s event. The tide decides the suitability of dates, so we are waiting till the Autumn to ensure we have accurate readings for us to go ahead. If we plan too early we could end up paddling round the course.

I have copied photos of last year’s event to remind you what a great time we had and hopefully encourage you all to join us next year.

I will keep you posted as to the actual date for 2021.

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