Harrier League

Blaydon, Saturday, November 26, 2011

Mudman and Mudwoman

Grand Prix Race. Mud King/Mud Queen Race.

Record Numbers turn out at the Harrier League!

I don’t know whether it’s the free entry that’s attractive during these recessionary times, or whether it’s just that word’s getting round on how great this competition is, but record numbers turned out in both the men’s (420) and women’s (159) races at the HL fixture at Blaydon. Striders contributed to the throng with 12 men and 10 women giving their all for the club in the mud and the wind. Two Striders men achieved promotion to higher packs with Phil Sanderson leading us home in 13th position (Phil will be back in the fast pack for the next fixture) & Neil Sleeman, in only his second HL race, finishing in 28th place and moving to the medium pack for next time. Well done to both of you! The rest of the team put in a sterling performance achieving 5th place in Division 2 on the day, meaning we’re in 4th place for the season so far. Let’s see if we can get even more out next time and maybe even push for promotion!

A delighted Tom Reeves produces the Fart of the Season, to everyone's amusement. The women’s race saw a battle royal between Striders’ two leading ladies, Nina and Mudwoman, with the ‘lead’ changing hands a number of times. Nina eventually prevailed by the narrowest of margins thanks (possibly!) to her new ‘go faster’ hair do! They were followed home by Fiona running from the medium pack with a 2 minute handicap. The seven other female Striders each put in ‘gutsy’ performances with Anna making her HL debut in a Striders vest. The ‘Sea of Purple’ finished 7th on the day in the now highly competitive Division 1 resulting in 6th place for the season so far. Well done everyone!

The HL takes a bit of a break now until Feb, although we’ve got the North Easterns and the Northerns before then. Let’s see Striders supporting this resurgence in North East Cross Country running by putting out our biggest teams ever of young, old, fast & less fast runners. Go on, give it a go, it’s free!

Results

Men
Pos Name Club Cat Time
1 STEPHENSON, Ryan Gateshead Harriers 28:33
13 SANDERSON, Phil 32:22 *M
28 SLEEMAN, Neil 33:07
125 GIBSON, David 35:10
128 REEVES, Tom 35:13
180 CLAYDON, Matt 36:09
192 MCCONNELL, Stewart 36:20
213 JONES, Mark 36:46
244 DAVIS, Geoff 37:33
276 ROBERTS, Shaun 38:16
277 WHITE, Conrad 38:20
351 BELL, Peter 41:07
369 ROBSON, Alister 41:51

*M Medium pack – 2m30s handicap.
*F Fast pack – 5m handicap.

420 finishers. Men’s team 5th of 11, Division 2 – now 4th in the division.

The Striders Women wait for Roz, before warming up with a hard session of Ring a Ring of Roses.

Women
Pos Name Club Cat Time
1 TARBUCK, Rosie Newcastle Uni 22:54
47 MASON, Nina 26:58
48 DAVIS, Susan 26:59
65 SHENTON, Fiona 27:24 *M
78 LAYTON, Roz 27:46
95 SEELEY, Anna 28:14
113 LAMB, Liz 29:03
114 LAUREN-MAATTA, Camilla 29:04
121 TOMLINS, Zoe 29:44
125 BRADLEY, Jean 29:54
146 YOUNG, Jan 32:22

*M Medium pack – 2m handicap.
*F Fast pack – 4m handicap.

159 finishers. Women’s Team 7th of 10, Division 1 – now 6th in the division.

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