Hi Harriers
Last night saw a small but perfectly formed group of Harriers arrive at Lee Valley for the Middle Distance Open Event.
Seven Harriers had entered but four arrived at the start line. It is very difficult and probably not unexpected that with events like this – that you have to book well in advance and that have limited availability and high demand – that injuries, illness and heavy race schedules impact on runners’ plans.
However, the group were determined and were ably supported by our in-house photographer, Richard Craig-McFeely and Geoff Turner, fresh back from a recce of the Lake District for our forthcoming club tour.
The 800m was the first event and we had 3 Harriers in heat one and one in heat two. There were six athletes that ran under 2 minutes with the best time of 1.55.32 from a SM athlete from Brighton Phoenix. Runners ranged from U13 to V70 although for the 800m U17 and younger were grouped in their own events.
As an observation it felt that TWH was well represented with a wide range of clubs from across London and SE participating with no one club seeming to dominate the number of entrants – I would encourage others to try competitive track racing as the outdoor track season ramps up in April and locations will be easier to get to!
I will let Andrew Deighton update us on the Harrier times as there were inaugural club records set at 800m and 1500m indoors.
As on the previous occasion we visited Lee Valley (1st December) the facilities and atmosphere were superb with a packed audience, commentator and fireworks to greet athletes crossing the finish line first in their respective heat.
The 1500m an hour later was in the same format other than there were less entrants (as only the novices enter two races on one night!) and the younger athletes were grouped in with the seniors and masters. From my perspective you can only really do one race justice in one night and it is usually the first one of the night!
We witnessed some great running over 30 or so races and were struck by how many athletes gave their absolute all – crashing to the floor as they finished the race. For some of us ‘masters’ it reminded us (not much haha!) of Daley Thompson sauntering around the 1500m at the Los Angeles Olympics with gold in the bag, finishing and staying upright while the bodies of his competitors were strewn everywhere.
Although there were no Harriers in this universe – questioning ourselves as to whether we gave absolutely everything or that we were a tad worried about how we would get up once we were down there.
Anyway times and records incoming from Andrew.
Photos will soon be in the Gallery from Richard.
Good luck to all our athletes in Saturday’s National XC and our own HM on Sunday.
More from me next month with upcoming track fixtures for April.
On your marks, set
Stuart