Alnwick Harriers

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

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