THE HARRIERS HERALD

No. 136, June 2004

  

Editorial

                                                                    

Welcome to June’s edition of the Harriers Herald.  We start with Thursday night schedules for June and July.  Due to Andy’s back injury, he has decided not to lead on 10^th June.  However, as this date will be our last Thursday before W-day, Mo and I would like to lead a ‘Stag-and-Hen run’ starting 18:30 from Gatehampton Recreation Ground, Goring (the same place as we met for last summer’s Goring run – ask us if you need directions) followed by a visit to the John Barleycorn pub.  Also in this issue: Mo’s Website news and Fixtures, details of the forthcoming Boundary Run and Walk, brief results of the Marlborough Downs 20M, a report on the Kintbury 5M race and results of the IAH Relay.  The major club event for June is the Ridgeway Relay on Sunday 20^th.  This is always a great team event and I am sure the Harriers will have another successful race this year.

 

Sue B

 

 

Thursday night schedule for June

Thurs    3rd                   Handicap Race

Thurs    10th                 Sue & Mo Stag-and-Hen run (from Goring)

Thurs    17th                 Susanne to lead

Thurs    24th                 Boundary Run & Walk

 

Thursday night schedule for July

Thurs    1^st                    Lucy to lead

Thurs    8^th                    Tom to lead

Thurs    15^th                  Marie to lead

Thurs    22^nd                       Mo to lead                  

Thurs    29^th                  Handicap Race

 

Thurs 4^th Aug               Sue P to lead run at Aldbourne

 

 

Boundary Race

The date for the full Boundary Run and Walk is Thursday 24^th June.  This is a scenic 8-mile route around the IAH and farm boundary finishing in the cricket field.  There are trophies for the first runners and walker, but many take part at a leisurely pace to enjoy the scenery and fresh air.  The barbecue will again be burning and all finishers will receive a drinks token for the Pickled Pig.  Walkers start at 16:30 and runners at 17:30.  If anyone has time to help with route marking or nettle-bashing in the preceding week, please let me know.

Website update… http://comptonharriers.cjb.net/ 

 

Mo

Well, it's been very busy lately, so I haven't really been able to dedicate too much time to the development of the website, but I have managed to keep it updated.  The Grand Union Canal Race 2004 results are already online and the IAH relay results have also been uploaded.  I have also developed a small programme to speed up the result process for the relay in future, so next year (when the Old Boys rightfully take back the trophy), the full results should be available shortly after the last team finishes.

My first link for the month is http://news.bbc.co.uk/sportacademy/hi/fun/quiz/default.stm .  The BBC website has a series of interactive online quizzes which should keep you amused.  Sue and I managed 10 correct out of 12 for the athletics quiz … see if you can beat that! 

…and for the football fanatics http://www.eifl.org.uk/eu2004/ is the site to follow for all the latest on Euro 2004. 

 

Fixtures: A selection of local and other well-known events for your information: -

 

·   Saturday, 5th June 2004 Wincle Trout Run 9Km fell also including 3Km fell) Mellor Knowl Farm, Wincle, Macclesfield, SK11 0QE (in Cheshire).  (Martin's Area - both he and Dick did this one last year).

  http://www.ukresults.net/04jun.html 

 

·   Sunday, 6 June 2004 Oxford Race for Life 5K  Oxford, Oxfordshire

   http://www.raceforlife.org

 

·   Saturday, 12 June 2004 The Big Fixture 7:30 pm Goring.

 

·   Sunday, 13 June 2004 Wargrave 10K  Wargrave, Berkshire

   http://www.wargraverunners.net

 

·   Sunday 20^th June 2004 Ridgeway Relay ... keep this one in mind!

   http://freespace.virgin.net/alan.joslin/mrc_home.htm

 

·   Thursday 24^th June 2004 IAH Boundary Run 8 Miles, mostly off-road, 5:30 pm start from IAH Main Gates.

 

·   Sunday, 27^th June 2004 Lambourn 6K Lambourn, Berkshire, 10:30 am from The Lambourn Centre

   (Entry forms on Harriers Notice Board)

 

·   Sunday, 27^th June 2004 Thame 10K Road Race 9:30 am start

   (Entry forms on Harriers Notice Board)

 

·   Saturday, 3 July 2004 Datchet Dash 10K at Dorney Lake, Windsor, Berkshire. 

   (Entry forms on Harriers Notice Board)

   http://www.datchet-dashers.com

 

·   Sunday, 4 July 2004  Samaritans 10K Sam Run  Crowthorne, Berkshire

   (Entry forms on Harriers Notice Board)

   http://www.samaritans.org.uk/~bracknell/samrun

 

·   Sunday, 4 July 2004  Tadley Runners Summer 10K  Tadley, Hampshire

   http://mysite.freeserve.com/tadley_runners

 

·   Sunday, 11 July 2004 New Forest 10 Brockenhurst, Hampshire

   Includes 3 Mile Fun Run, ½ Mile Fun Run, 1 Mile Fun Run

   http://www.nf10.co.uk/

 

·   Sunday, 25 July 2004  Thames Run 10K Wallingford, Oxfordshire

   http://www.thamesrun.co.uk/

 

Mo - May 2004

 

Marlborough Downs 20M Challenge, 22^nd May

 

Lucy and Martin took part in this event, with Martin acting as pacemaker and navigator, helping Lucy round to a good time of 3:14.  Lucy will be writing a report for next month.

 

   

Kintbury 5 mile Road race, 31^st May

Sue B

 

Having enjoyed this event last year, Mo and I were keen to go back again for 2004’s race in the picturesque village of Kintbury, near Hungerford.  Newbury Athletic Club’s Dave Wright, who organises the event in aid of village charities, was very pleased that the warm sunny weather attracted a record seventy entrants.  Last year, I was second lady and the defending champ had not returned this year.  However, before the start, I did spot Cath Wheeler from Overton, who was always just a few places in front of me in recent cross-country races, and I decided to keep her in my sights for as long as possible.

 

We started off with a lap of the recreation ground before heading out onto the road, with a long steady drag uphill towards Inkpen.  Soon after the start, I realised it was one of those rare occasions where I felt totally comfortable in my running - strong, confident and relaxed.  Not only had I edged ahead of Cath, but I was running with Dave Wright (he’s still recovering from his recent charity cycle from John O’ Groats to Land’s End) who was taking me along at a decent pace.  At 2 miles, we left the road and turned down a woodland track to take a scenic route though farmland and on private roads.  At three miles, Cath passed me and opened up a gap and I was quite happy to settle for second place.  However, I continued running with Dave and on a gradual uphill just before four miles we reeled her in again.  Cath was breathing heavily and I thought I was in with a chance, but she pushed on hard for the final stretch back into the village and finally finished 13 seconds ahead of me.  Nevertheless, I was well pleased to finish in 30:40 (32:24 last year) just ahead of both Dave Wright and Bob Taylor, and feeling that was one of the one of the best races I’d ever run.

 

Meanwhile, Mo was still out of the route, but had realised that he was on course to beat his 2003 time.  He couldn’t quite catch the Pewsey ladies, but passed a couple of ladies from Swindon Striders to finish in 42:42 (43:32 last year) which he was really pleased with.

 

We collected our key-ring race mementos, and had time for a quick change before the presentation.  A local man won the race in a fast time of 26:45.  Dave had trouble pronouncing my surname (never mind, it’ll soon be an easier one!).  In addition to a trophy, all the prizewinners received a bottle of London Pride beer, which Mo was happy to drink on my behalf!  To round off an enjoyable morning, we spent a very pleasant hour on the riverside seats at the ‘Dundas Arms’ pub, with Bob and a few other Newbury runners.  We would certainly recommend the Kintbury race as a friendly local event that is well-organised and very scenic.

 
IAH Relay

Sue B

  

Results & thanks

Well done to all who competed at last Thursday’s relay and thanks to all Harriers who helped (Jan and Dick for time keeping; Lucy, Martin and Susanne for helping with course marking; Andy for sorting the barbecue finances; Mo for helping calculate the results).   Despite the downpour just after the start, it was a successful evening, a record fourteen teams participating.  Following a run of four wins by ‘The Old Boys’, we had some new champs ‘Boys & Men’.  Team captain Bryan Charleston cunningly managed to negotiate a very generous handicap for the two under-13 stars!  The second team to finish was Double Date, with The Four Musketeers close behind in third place.  ‘Boys & Men’ also recorded the fastest actual team time of the evening (41:30), but ‘The Old Boys’ will be pleased to hear they still have the team course record (41:17, set in 2003).  There were some very good individual performances, the top five men’s and ladies performances being:

Men: (1) Martin Fray (V) 8:48; (2) Steve Copley (U13) 9:11; (3) Richard Lade 9:21; (4) James Charleston (U13) 9:31; (5) David Tough (V) 9:35

Ladies:  (1) Sue Baigent 9:38; (2) Susanne Enhard (V) 10:35; (3) Marie McIntyre 10:46; (4) Hannah Townley 11:13; (5) Lucy Gettins (V) 11:18

Martin knocked 8 seconds off Dick’s course record, while Sue took 11 seconds off her own ladies record.

 

 

Barbecue takings

Andy, our Treasurer has pointed out that we should have charged more for the burgers rather than just aiming to ‘break even’.  As Andy rightly says, apart from club membership subscriptions the barbecue profits are our only source of income.  If we do not wish to increase membership subscriptions, then we must aim to make a decent profit on the barbecues.

 

 

Improvements for next year

There are a couple of suggestions for improvements to the relay for future years.  Firstly, we are always conscious of how long it takes to calculate the results (particularly this year, with 56 runners taking part).  However, we know that many people like to know their individual times before they go home.  For each team we have to calculate individual times from the cumulative time at the end of each leg: doing 56 calculations like 53:14 minus 41:43 as quickly as possible without making mistakes is not easy!  However, Mo has now designed a program to do all the calculations for us – all we need to input for each team is the runner’s name and the cumulative time.  So hopefully we will be much more efficient and accurate next year.  As a result of Mo’s efforts, you can view these results by team, leg, or overall results on our website http://comptonharriers.cjb.net/ (under ‘latest news’ on the Homepage).

 

One of the competitors suggested we have a table at the finish with a barrel of water and some disposable cups, as many competitors needed to sit down and rehydrate at the end, before struggling upstairs with their beer token.  This sounds like a sensible idea and could easily be implemented for next year.

 

 

Cleaner’s complaint

Unfortunately, the following day, there was a complaint from the cleaner about the state of the Rec. Soc. building.  There was grass all over the bar floor (rather unavoidable, as the cricket field had recently been mown), half-empty glasses on un-wiped bar tables (usually tidied up by the bar staff) and a mess in the gents toilet basins from someone who’d drunk too much.  It is unfortunate that these things all happened after our event and no one is pointing the finger at Compton Harriers, particularly because there was also a leaving party in the bar that evening.  However, the issue of tidying up after such events is to be discussed at the next Rec. Soc. Committee meeting.

 

IAH-Compton Relay 2004: Results

	Team Name	Start time min	Leg 1		Leg 2		Leg 3		Leg 4		Finish time & actual time (minus start time)
			Name	Time	Name	Time	Name	Time	Name	Time
1st	Boys & Men	3.5	James Charleston (U13)	9:31	Bryan Charleston (V)	13:10	Kevin Copley (V)	9:38	Steve Copley (U13)	9:11	45:00 41:30
2nd	Double Date	4.0	Janine Oldham (L)	11:27	Hannah Townley (L)	11:13	David Tough (V)	9:35	Dave Withers	9:45	46:00 42:00
3rd	The Four Musketeers	1.0	Susanne Enhard (LV)	10:35	Tash Fielder (L)	12:22	Peter Humphries (V)	11:05	Lucy Gettins (LV)	11:18	46:20 45:20
4th	-	4.0	Marie McIntyre (L)	10:46	Nicole Jaitner (L)	14:22	Geoff Oldham (V)	12:27	Richard Lade	9:21	50:56 46:56
5th	The Old Boys	6.5	Malcolm Francis (V)	12:30	Tom Doy (V)	12:03	Dennis Hubbard (V)	11:06	Martin Fray (V)	8:48	50:57 44:27
6th	French Fries with Catch-up	8.5	Sam Comely	10:11	Craig Ross	12:02	Marc Davies	11:25	Eric Lefevre	9:50	51:58 43:28
7th	The Terrorbytes	5:30	Chris Rowland (V)	11:34	Fiona Wycherley LV) + Sally Dog	12:13	Simon Patchett	11:34	Ross Saddler	12:13	53:04 47:34
8th	The Chattoo-boxes	4.5	Jason Chattoo	15:02	Kathryn Wright (L)	12:33	Sue Baigent (L)	9:38	Tim Beecher	11:31	53:14 48:44
9th	Media All-Stars	6.0	Hugh Willis	11:17	Tracey Duncombe (L)	15:41	Phil Green (V)	10:52	Richard Oakes	10:06	53:56 47:56
10th	Jenner	0.5	Miranda Ashton (L)	11:48	MaiLee Wong (L)	13:33	Rachel Owen (L)	14:26	Valerie Walshe (L)	13:49	54:06 53:36
11th	-	2.5	Sally Rogers (L)	14:30	Fiona ? (L)	12:06	Sue Fen Kwa (L)	13:42	Dan Gliddon	11:43	54:31 52:01
12th	D.O.A.	4.0	Andrew Green	12:08	Emma Denham (L)	15:51	Nicola Middleton (L)	13:14	Terry Field (V)	10:36	55:49 51:49
13th	-	6.5	Martin Blythe	12:01	Jo Williams (L)	15:58	Simon Camp (+ detour)	13:56	Andy Gill	14:27	document.write('');