Harrier teams are getting ready to do battle these next two weekends when we see two teams of 6 entered for this weekend's Parrett Trail relay; and then on Sunday Oct 21st we have the first of the season's Gwent Cross-Country League matches.
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The Parrett Trail relay on Saturday Oct 13th traces the river from its mouth on the Bristol Channel; to its source at Winyards gap, Dorset; and surprise, surprise is slightly uphill with some significant climbs near the source. Team managers Bob Powell (for the men) and Helen Rutter (for the women) have assembled a keen and dedicated squad of runners to cover the 6 stages and will report for us next week. The women’s team sees Sue Cook, Alice Knight, Sam Baker, Lucy Heath and Ali Gadd competing. The men’s team has Dave Fussel, Steve Layzell, Richard Morgan, JasonTuck, and John Reynolds.- Good luck all!
The Gwent League match on Sunday Oct 21st is at far-flung Bridgend and the Harriers are looking to get as many junior and senior members to the fixture as possible. Please check the dedicated website for start details and course information and contact your team manager if you want to compete for the Club - all are welcome. Details of team managers, as usual, on the page 'About Wells City Harriers'. To help with tranport arrangements please advise team managers by Sunday 14th so that we know if there is a need for a minibus or two. Cost to enter Gwent league is £1 for juniors and £4 for seniors. Minibus if available will be £5.http://www.gwent-league.org.uk/
The date of the Somerset County XC Championships has now been confirmed as Sunday December 9th at University of Bath with races for all ages from school year 5 upwards to veterans. Team managers will submit a team entry for all interested in competing by the deadline of Dec 3rd. Cost to enter is free for the non-championship u11 races; and £5 for the other age group races. More details from Paul.
Meanwhile this past weekend of October 6th & 7th Wells City Harrier trained athletes have been out competing at a number of Half marathons. At the Burnham on sea half marathon amongst a field of 237 athletes, Tara Lintern had a very strong run knocking almost 15 minutes off her previous best and came in third lady in a time of 1hr 31 mins. Tara was 25th overall. Next in for the Harriers was Stephen Dickinson who knocked 5 minutes off his personal best to go below 1hr 40 for the first time, finishing in 71st place. Stephen has been in training for just a year and his times have been tumbling. Then close behind came Ali Gadd with her 1.41 (74th) and finally Rob Moore, in training for a spring marathon, with his 1hr 46. (95th). For Rob, this equalled his pb despite his having missed quite a lot of training this year.
The four take part at different training sessions across the week. Stephen trains mainly with the Tuesday group of Harriers at Millfield track, whilst Tara, Ali & Rob have been training on Wednesday evenings with the Harrier group from the Wells Rugby Club. In addition, one of the Club’s Honorary Life members, Berni Mundy, has been overseeing extra Thursday sessions for Tara and Rob, and Berni intends to continue these across the winter for any others that want to join that evening’s group to improve their times. Information about the Thursday session from This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Meanwhile at the Royal Parks half marathon in London amongst a field of 12,500 runners, there was another group of Harriers out competing over the standard distance. Despite having to do some weaving and shuffling because of the crowded course there was some good running by the three Harriers that competed, all raising money for good causes. Mary Harrington ran 2.15, Jacqui Rusca 2.29 and Alice Knight 2.03. well done all.
REMEMBER - all submissions for the Harrier newsletter to secretary Ian Carpenter please by this coming weekend Oct 14th at latest -send photos; stories; training ideas and anything else which you think would be of interest to others.