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English Schools Cross Country Championships - Norwich 12th March 2005Earlier this winter, more than 60,000 runners tried to qualify for to compete in the English Schools X-C Championships. On Saturday 12th at the Norwich Showground there were five Richmond and Zetland Harriers amongst the almost 2000 successful runners in 45 County teams. The Norwich course started on the flat land of the Showground and then went out to farmland where there was one short, sharp hill to contend with and a sizeable section of muddy ground. There had been snow in Norwich the day before, but race day was dry, with a stiff easterly breeze making for near arctic temperatures. The Inter Girls were first away at 12.30 pm over a 3.9K course and Jessie Roberts, representing North Yorkshire, finished 163rd out of 333 runners in 17:29, 5th counter in the team which was 15th. Douglas Roberts, also representing North Yorkshire, was next off in the Junior Boy’s race over 4.2K at 2 pm and was 45th out of 332 runners in 15:53, less than 80 seconds behind the winner and 2nd counter for the team that finished in 6th place. The Senior Girl’s race was over the same 4.2K route a half hour later and Georgina Zissler, representing Co Durham, finished 206th in 19:57 and 7th counter for the team. The last race, at 3 pm, was for Senior Boys and Co Durham had their best result of the day when they finished runners-up to Essex. This was even more special as the County is a Group B with only half the school population of the winners. The 6.8K route over two large laps was well and truly cut-up by that time but didn’t deter Co Durham’s Nick Zissler who finished 98th in 25:21 nor Phil Fitzpatrick, running for North Yorkshire, who was 183rd in 26:20. The English Schools Championships are ranked second only to the Nationals as the Cross-country event and the souvenir T-shirts earned by the competitors are treasured like nothing else.
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The Dentdale Run took place on the same Saturday. The 14 mile annual road run has a reputation for being one of the toughest yet most enjoyable running events in Cumbria and attracted over 400 runners from all over the north of England and beyond, including Neil Piper of the Harriers. Steve Littler of Wesham Road Runners won the race for the third consecutive year, 53 seconds behind his best in 1:19:45. Neil finished in 145th place and his comment, that his time “a modest 1.53:56, an improvement on last year at least”, was actually quite an understatement - an improvement of over 16 minutes and 82 places is testimony to his enduring ability and the physiotherapy of Alison Rogers.
Redcar Half Marathon - 13th March 2005
The third event of the weekend with RZH in the line-up was the Liberata sponsored Redcar Half Marathon on Sunday 13th and five of the Club’s six London Marathon runners used the race as a time trial. The weather was much improved, both on the howling gale in 2004 and the cold and wet of previous weeks, much to the relief of the record field. Steve Hepples of Loftus but now running for Newham & Essex Beagles, was never headed and won in 68:35. Jon Orange was similarly prominent on the front row in his red and white Peacocks of Richmond vest; he was first home for the Harriers and his 9th place and 1st M40 in 71:34 earned him a new running top. Shaun Purkiss did exactly what he set out to do, run sub 80, his 79:40 clocking brought him home 32nd overall and 8th M40. Mike Brooks finished in 66th place, two places down on his 2004 run despite being 1:43 faster - his 83:35 earned him 4th M50, out of the prizes by less than a minute. The quality at the sharp end continued as Tony Hewson was 1:21 faster than in 2004 but also two places down, finishing 119th in 88:39 and setting a new PB to erase his time from the halfway mark in the 2003 London Marathon! Ian Hepworth was the fifth Harrier of five, in 106:12 for 466th place out of 972 finishers, well inside the top half. The three-to-score team unofficially finished 5th in the Open category and 1st Veteran team.