November / December 2008
Well sorry for the delayed Newsletter, normal life prevails and I have had a lot of priorities taking up my time but hey Christmas is on the way. The Club championship has now been decided and the overall winners are Chris Howie for the men’s GP and select Championship and Sharon Dixon for the Ladies.
The championship was decided prior to our Christmas pudding 10k, which was probably a good thing as December is full of Christmas nights out and Hangovers. This year being no exception as various club members had Nights out prior to the 10K, luckily mine was on the Friday and despite being lousy on Saturday I was fully fit for the pudding run but as usual stressed and doubting that I had any ability to run fast whatsoever. Generally I am crap at morning running but if warmed up for long enough I perform ok. Hence arrive early at 10 am on a freezing morning and get a few miles in, this seemed to work as I had a good run and took the MV 50 prize. I had a good group around me for 5 miles including Simon Stanway from Barrow 2 secs ahead and the first lady home Sue Becconstall from Bingley Harriers 5 secs behind. This order had changed throughout the distance, but at the end, this is the order we finished in, Simon running a PB and mentioned because we have competed in the trail series together this year and usually I have been ahead. Overall Chris Howie was our first counter taking the MV40 prize in 6th place, me second counter in 12th place MV50 prize and third counter Robert O’Hara 2nd MV 50 prize in 17th place. So needless to say we also took the team prize. The ladies also ran strong with Julie Hunter winning the FV 35 2nd prize and overall the ladies consisting of Julie, Alyson Knowles, and Penny Moreton taking the Ladies Team Prize. Chatting after the race I was aware of two PB’s Penny Moreton and Nigel Storey, if I have missed others sorry but you have to tell me.
Cross country
The last 2 months have also seen three mid lancs Cross country races, Burnley being the first one Liverpool being the second and Blackpool the third, Team results were gained at Burnley for Ladies and men’s but sadly at Liverpool the men were one man short for a team result but still managed a Vet team result. Blackpool was well represented and was probably the wettest and muddiest for a long while, the course was just two big 3 mile laps for the men and it was a hard decision to choose between spikes or fell shoes. Blackpool is probably the only Mid Lancs course that has a fair distance on gravel tracks, so spikes are not as big advantage as normal. Ben Proctor chose Fell shoes after a reccie of the course and I followed suit. I haven’t a clue as to whether it paid off as I was just as bad at the finish as I usually am. Everyone was covered in a thick coating of mud at the end and the Club tent was as wet and muddy as the field outside, but with everyone inside, a good deal warmer. No one was looking forward to dismantling the tent but we all mucked in and somehow managed to pack it in the bag along with half the cross country course, I don’t envy Jeff trying to dry that out.
General bits and bobs
The junior section is going from strength to strength under the leadership of Ken with Chris, Sharon and Peter helping with the coaching. The section has around 26 members and all are still keen, even in the winter. There was an end of year prize giving last week which was well supported by parents and senior club members, with lots of prizes distributed as all the junior members achievements were recognised.
Just a reminder for everyone, it is planned to do the Christmas Lights run on Monday 22 December. For all recent members this is the night that our social run takes a route that covers as many of the best decorated Ulverston residences as a 6 mile route will allow, usually led by Terry so there will be no reason to wait for him at each stop.
If I heard right, I think there may be mince pies and mulled wine on offer at the club after the run.
Boxing Day will also bring us our annual fancy dress fun run, a distance of 5k around the canal at whatever pace you like. Even if you have no fancy dress, just come along, blow the cobwebs off and enjoy the fun. There will be a prize for the best fancy dress and for the person who can guess their time, so no watches please. Generally there are a few other awards on the day, so please come along, and if you can bring some refreshments to share all the better.
A big loss to the club
As most people will be aware Damion Jones is leaving the Ulverston Glaxo site for a 2 year secondment to Ireland, He has been a club member for over 20 years, a committee member, Chairman, Race organiser, trainer, and everything else, and also for me a great training partner. We have hammered each other for years on a Thursday night and I sorely missed him when he had a major injury a few years ago. He is getting back to his full potential and I am sure he will be an active club 2nd claim club member to any Irish running Club. It goes without saying that he will be missed by us all and we hope he has time to spare to come back for frequent visits. Monday or Thursday nights will not be the same, especially in summer thinking of the off road runs, Plumpton, and Kirby moor and his favourite killer Knottallow Hill.
Anyway good luck Damion and Pat we hope everything goes ok and look forward to you visiting next year.
And finally a little story to fill up the last page
The problem with early entries
The Coniston Trail Race is one of the series of races that I regularly compete in and this year I am embarrassed to admit that I well and truly messed up. It’s a long story but suffice to say that you have to enter this event well in advance. I had entered the whole 2008 series the previous year so that I knew I was entered and could train accordingly. Well as we all know this year has been a wet and unpredictable affair and so has been my training and performance. I had poor races early on and then the Derwentwater Trail was cancelled after a horrendous waterlogged journey to Keswick. I was slightly disillusioned with the whole saga, but was looking forward to Coniston. Now the embarrassing bit, for some reason after entering the Ullswater Trail race due to take place on Sunday 2nd November, I was under the impression Coniston was also on the Sunday. You may ask why I didn’t check, I haven’t a clue, call it a senior moment but when I did check the final arrangements on Saturday night I was greeted with the results page. To say I was disappointed is an understatement, but I only had myself to blame. The funny thing is I was thinking all day long on Saturday that the weather is horrendous and I am glad it’s not Coniston today.
Looking back it was a miserable day and lots of people decided not to run. The organisers decided to run all races together at low level for safety reasons.
Anyway a good result by Chris Howie who finished in 10th place on the shortened course, as far as I know there were no other Harriers in the race.
Have a merry Christmas.
Graham