This Saturday (16th April), Morpeth Harriers Senior Men and Women will be in action
at the annual English National 12 and 6 Stage Road Relay Championships at Sutton Park, Sutton Coldfield, near Birmingham. The Senior Men are defending the title that they won for the first time twelve months ago, and the Women hope to improve on their position of 14th in last year’s competition. Laura Weightman, whose eyes are very much on selection for the Rio Olympics in August, is expected to be in their line-up, following a short spell of warm weather training. The Men however have to reckon without Jonny Taylor, Nick Swinburn and Carl Avery, who is competing in a European Duathlon Championship, in Kalkar in Germany. However Peter Newton confirmed in his Northern performance at Sunderland that he is in good form, and he is in their line-up, which will also see a return for Ian Hudspith and Ady Whitwam, who both missed the Sunderland contest. Morpeths World Duathlon Sprint Champion Carl Avery competed in the
high profile Windsor Elite event, in Royal Berkshire on Sunday 3rd April. In a very hard fought event which involves transitions of both bicycle and running, Avery finished in fifth place, only thirty seven seconds adrift of winner Richard Horton of Racetime Triathlon Club. Avery clocked an overall time of 54m53s, and there were 52 finishers, who also included Durham City Harrier Dan Jenkin, who was one place, and thirteen seconds ahead of him. I have just returned from having run the Alexander the Great marathon in Thessaloniki in Greece.
The race was over a point to point course, starting at a statue of Alexander in his birth place of Pella, and then running pretty much due East to end at another statue of the great man on the waterfront Thessaloniki. The course is overall down hill, starting at around 45m above sea level and ending less than a metre above it. There are some very gentle undulations, but no significant climbs. That said, while the prevailing wind is from the West, when I ran it, I encountered a head wind during a gradual climb over the whole of the 27km stage, making this the toughest section of the race. Organisation of the race is good. The Expo, where you pick up your number, is in the centre of Thessaloniki, near the finish. This was very laid back, but worked fine. Buses were laid on to take runners to the start, again from near the finish. The race started at 8am, so the buses leave early at 5:30 to 6:00 am. Baggage was well looked after being taken by vans from the start to the finish. Although the information said bags had to be on the vans 50 mins before the start of the race, in reality people were putting them on 15-20 mins before hand. There were only around 1700 runners at the start, separated into four pens, so there was very little in the way of congestion. The route is not a particularly pretty or interesting one. Most of the way it passes through scrub and farm land, with the odd more industrial area. The finish (last 1.5k) is along the water front in Thessaloniki though which is nice and lively. Support was virtually non existent along the entire course – even along the busy waterfront. What was excellent, however, was marshalling and feed-stations. These were numerous and supplied water, isotonic fluid (Poweraid), bananas and, at a few, energy gels (High-5 I think). At the finish, there were loads of people helping give you a great big medal, water, isotonic fluid, a cereal bar and a banana. Bags were near the finish. On the same day as the marathon there is a 10K – this is finished before most marathoners reach the end, and a 5K which starts around 4.5 hours after the marathon. There were loads more people competing in these two events than in the marathon. There are relatively few flights to Thessaloniki from the UK. EasyJet flys from Manchester and Gatwick direct. Thessaloniki itself is a busy city. There are loads of bars, restaurants and night clubs (some still going strong when I was walking to the bus to the start of the marathon at 5:30 am). Prices for food and drinks are generally lower than the UK unless at some of the smarter waterfront bars. The city has loads of history having been founded around 300BC. There are loads of Roman ruins and Byzantine churches. There is a good Museum of Byzantium, plus one on the Olympics, which we didn't get to. The city is easily walkable, but there are cheap buses and taxis as well. It is good to stay between Aristotle square in the West and the White tower in the East (where all three races finish) – these are around 1k apart. Thessaloniki is not a Paris or Barcelona for style and architecture. The marathon doesn't have the crowd support or razzmatazz of London or Boston. However, the course is definitely a potential PB/PR one, and Thessaloniki is an interesting and lively place to visit. Hamish McAllister-Williams On Monday 4th April, the club held a Sprints Trials Session at the Track at KEVI School,
which was attended by 32 competitors, including some of our established club runners. This was in preparation for both the forthcoming Track season, and a Sprint Relay event being held on Sunday 10th April, at Churchill Playing Fields, Whitley Bay. It was organised by Coach Mark Brown, with very valued assistance from Sprint Coaches Dave Thomas, Eddie Hedley, and Hemant and Vina Desai, with further Judging Assistance and Timing Assistance being provided by Charlie Carr, Mick Groves, Beth Young, and Les Venmore, leading NECAA Timekeeper. Resident Start Official George Patterson was the man with the Gun for the night. Many thanks go to all who assisted on the night to make sure that all went well, and was enjoyed by all who participated. Less than 24 hours after running a superb first leg for Bronze medallists Morpeth Harriers at the Northern Athletics 12 Stage Road Relays at Silksworth, Sunderland on Saturday, Sam Hancox was back in full competitive action, when winning the annual Transped Blyth Valley 10k Road Race on Sunday morning, which was run for the twelfth occasion.
Having celebrated his 21st birthday just a couple of days beforehand, Hancox certainly made his weekend complete, when he won by a margin of 30 seconds, posting a winning time of 31m49s, from Salford’s Tom Cornthwaite, who had also competed the previous day, running the final glory leg for his winning club. In what could also be termed as “Sweet Revenge”, Hancox also led his club to a handsome Men’s team victory over second placed Tyne Bridge Harriers, with third place going to host club Blyth. Supporting Hancox in the team victory were Karl Taylor and Mark Snowball who finished 6th and 12th, posting respective times of 33m38s, and 34m37s. Taylor and Snowball had also both run at Silksworth the previous day. |
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