Two Essex Road Running Grand Prix races within six days did not faze the Colchester Harriers women’s team as they showed their strength in depth to maintain their perfect start to the series with three wins in three races. Starting off with the Ten Mile Championships held in Witham on a cool and windy May Day Bank Holiday, the green trio of Heidi Hogan-Steele, Victoria Primmer and Lucy Davies swept the opposition aside to finish first, second and third in the race. With Heidi clocking 1:02:58, Victoria 1:04:25 (PB) and Lucy 1:04:40. Other females donning the green vest were Tarynn Macleod 1:17:31, Dianne Wooller 1:24:45 (first V70) and Alicia Crane 1:29:49.

Six days later, in massively contrasting conditions of twenty degree plus temperatures was round three of the Championships, the Halstead marathon. This time the scoring women’s runners were Kate Creak, Heidi Hogan-Steele (again!) and Emily Worboys. Kate running her second marathon in under a month (after London) and showed the field a clean pair of heels to finish in first place in a fabulous 3:08:51. Heidi came third in 3:11:59 and Emily ran 3:39:12 and seventh female (running superbly after not banking many long runs in training!). Holly Weir was ‘non-counting’ for the Essex Champs but ran a strong 3:20:33 for fourth placed female. Muriel Lovering was the other Harriers female present, clocking 5:27:03.

Onto the men’s side, who after consecutive fifth placed finishes in the first two rounds, produced a strong showing at Halstead to finish second and elevate themselves to third in the Grand Prix table. Without doubt the highlight was Mohammed Elbayan’s new course record of 2:28:08 to smash the old record by around a minute. Remarkably, like Kate, he ran back-to-back marathons after finishing ninth in Manchester (who needs rest, hey!?). Club legend Allen Smalls finished first V55 in 3:04:25 and was backed up by important runs from Jerry Walder (3:31:55) and Jon Battram (4:00:34).

Kudos to all the marathon runners for the significant commitment to this race. This is often the round where big points can be dropped due to not being able to field complete teams. This year we have bagged some big points which will be important come the end of the series.

PBs Galore at the Essex Track and Field Championships

Moving onto track and field and the Essex Track and Field Championships took place over two days in Chelmsford with most of the numerous Harriers entrants being junior athletes. Many showed off the fruits of their hard training with a plethora of PBs and Season’s Bests. The following notable mentions for the ‘PB athletes’: Alexander Bracken – 800M U17  2.10.42. Alice Begg – 1500M U20 4:55.10. Bronson Hearn Smith – 200M U17 21.82. Brooke Cooper – 200M U13 37.59. Corey Hare – 1500M U20 4:37.84. Ella Licence – 3000M U15 12:23.83. Farryl McLoughlin – U15 High Jump 1.30M and 75M hurdles 12.34. Floriane King – U13 High Jump 1.10M and 70M hurdles 13.82. Freya Ballard – 800M U15 2:44.00. Lacey Martell- Smith – U13 Long Jump 4.43 and 200M 27.19. Max Faulkner – 1500M U13 5:01.89. Mia Smith 100M U15 14.03 and 200M U15 28.97. Paolo Valente – 800M U15 2:20.96. Sam Bailey 1500M U13 5:26.65. Tallulah Hughes 200M U15 29.29.

Sticking with the track, Lizzie Wellsted represented Leeds Beckett University in the BUCS Outdoor 5,000 Metre Championships. In a tactical race, Lizzie finished 11^th in a time of 16:40:64. A season’s best after injury, and Lizzie will start another training block with the intention of going below sixteen minutes this year.

Other Races

A multitude of other races have been attended by the green vests over the past few weeks. Starting at the top-end of the distance scale. Lily Gilby completed the Guernsey Ultra 36 race in a time of 8:23:55, which was twelfth placed female. This is a thirty-six-mile mixed terrain race entirely around the circumference of the island. The scenery and views looked stunning, which hopefully made the tougher parts easier on the legs for Lily! Stuart Harris and Lucy Davies embarked on the Run to The Sea Brighton Ultra with Stuart having a particularly good run finishing in twelfth place overall and first V50 in a time of 4:36:01. And last but not least, it was that man again, Allen Smalls who somehow managed to find the time to run the Girona 103KM race. The two thousand nine hundred metres of elevation were no match for Allen who finished in eleventh place, in a time of 13:17:53.

Men’s club captain, Dan Steptoe-Thompson, led by example, obliterating his half-marathon PB by a whopping eight minutes at the Hackney Half, clocking 1:41:08.

Finishing on two of the more prominent road races in the local calendar. Amongst a significant Harriers contingent running on home turf at the Colchester 10K, Dean Williamson recorded another race win cruising to victory in the twenty degree heat in a time of 31:52.

Twenty six Colchester Harriers toed the start line at a windy Ipswich Twilight 5K race but there were still some fast times with an encouraging attendance of nine juniors enjoying the atmosphere of the crowd support and band. The junior entrants and results: Nancy Garner (24:31), Orla Sutcliffe (22:44), Jemima Garner (22:27), Ella Simpson (21:16), Ella Licence (20:23), Sophie Rogers (20:13), Rowan Weir (19:47), Finlay Weir (19:19) and Hayden Preston (17:16).

Well done to everyone who has raced this month for the club!