REPORT BY: JILL EZARD

THERE were fantastic performances on fell, trail and road this weekend for the Harriers with some outstanding results.

Saturday saw two Harriers take part in the It’s Grim Up North Mother Shipton’s Soft Shoe Shuffle. This trail running event sees participants taking on a beautiful 6.5-mile loop, with a choice of various distances.

The route starts from the centre of Knaresborough, climbing gently up through parkland onto the old railway track between Knaresborough and Harrogate, surrounded by beautiful countryside, finishing back in the town. Natalie Gravett-Foyn and Alex Foyn both took on the 10k (ish) challenge, with the former having a great run to finish in the top ten in 57:35 and the latter name mentioned storming over the line in 43:44 to take second place.

Slightly further afield Dave Robson continued his quest to try out a new race every month in 2024 with an outing to Todmorden for the Shepherd’s Skyline Fell race. A 10km race with 350m of ascent this is not for the faint-hearted, with some tough climbs and technical, muddy descents around Stoodley Pike. He had a fantastic run, finishing in the top 20 and taking first place in his age category in 52:11. He was joined by Jim Ryder who came over the line in 1:01:30 and Duncan Cooper in 1:04:04.

The ever-popular Guy Fawkes 10 took place on Sunday, attracting a 22-strong team of Harriers this year, yet again lured no doubt by the goodie bag of chocolate the event is renowned for.

A hilly ten-mile race, the event starts and finishes at Ripley Castle and is run mostly on the road with a couple of sections of bridleway. There were some outstanding results: Ed Hobbs challenged the lead from the start and put in a blistering performance to win the race in a course record of 54:04.

Next over the line was Jaysson Sawyer continuing his run of form to take third place in his age category in 1:05:24; Iain Young, returning from injury, put a great run in to be the third Harrier home in 1:07:35.

Battling for age group top five positions were Peter Shelley and John Hayes who took fourth and fifth positions respectively; Rachel Carter and Jane McCarthy were the first female Harriers home both having superb races to take first place in their age categories – with Carter being the sixth female in 1:09:55 and McCarthy seventh, just seconds behind in 1:10:08.

There were other top ten age group positions for Mike Williams, Marc Westerman and Alison Weston.

Clearly wanting to get in on election fever in the States, Dick and Helen Waddington crossed the Atlantic to take part in the New York City Marathon on Sunday. This iconic marathon takes participants through all five boroughs of New York City, starting on the Verrazzano–Narrows Bridge on Staten Island and passing through Brooklyn, Queens, Manhattan, and the Bronx, before finishing in Central Park.

Dick was first over the line in 3:48:15 with Helen just behind in 3:52:58 coming an impressive 115th out of 1,364 in her age category.

It has been a very quiet weekend of racing for Ilkley’s Juniors, no doubt due to the school holidays. Nonetheless some good parkrun results for those who took part. James Lee once again had a fabulous top ten finish at Lister Park, coming home in seventh place overall (and first in his age category JM 11-14) with a time of 19:15. Over at Roberts Park, Ethan Pickwoad completed the course in 22:25 (second in his age category of JM10 and 47th overall out of a huge field of 526).

And 20 Senior Harriers took part in one of the weekly parkrun events across the UK with some great achievements. Kate Archer joined in the fun at the Bedworth event and was the first female finisher. And Tom Adams had similar success at Cliffe Castle where his time as first finisher gave an impressive age grading of 82.77%. Even more impressive was Mark Hall at the Lister Park event where he achieved an age grading of 88.78%. At the Chevin event, Danny Thompson had a great run and was ninth finisher and Tom Mountain set a new PB. Also setting a PB at the Myrtle event was Nicola Budding who was also the sixth female finisher.