Heaton Harriers had many great performances yesterday on and off the Town Moor at our annually hosted Memorial Race.
Firstly a huge well done to Fred Davies for being first home for the club in the seniors 10k race in a time of 32:20 and a new PB. Fred is still a member of Heaton Harriers despite him living away from the area so it is great to see him compete for the club back on home turf and finishing in 5th place overall.
Recent Tommy 10k winner Louis Head looked to be neck and neck with Fred for the majority of the race finishing just behind in 8th place in the end in a time of 33:03. Well done Louis, that looked to be some battle between you two. David Coe completed the Heaton Top 3 men in 45th place overall.
Away from Heaton’s achievements, the overall winner of the 10k was Adrian Bailes of Birtley AC in 30:32. Just 3 seconds behind in 2nd place which again looked to be a brilliant contest between the two was Jarlath McKenna of Bristol & West AC. Completing the top 3 was Connor Marshall of Morpeth Harriers. Well done to all 3 runners.
The first female Heaton finisher was the ever-present Ellie Reed who was also 11th female overall and 3rd in her V35 age category. Ellen Tullo was the 2nd Heaton female and 5th in the V40 age category. Laura Percy made up the Heaton ladies’ Top 3 in a new 10k PB. Well done Laura, great running!
Ellie Reed Heaton Harriers
The overall female winner was Kate Maltby of Bristol & West AC in a time of 35:28. Amy Fuller of Tyne Bridge finished in 2nd place and Jacqueline Penn of North Shields poly finished 3rd.
Back to Heaton Harriers we had some notable age-category victors on top of what was achieved above:
- Stephen Mackenzie finished 5th in the V55 age category in a time of 40:24.
- Ian Norman came 2nd in the V60 age category in a time of 39:33.
- Jenny Friend came 4th in the V60 age category in a time of 50:09.
- Pauline Chaplin came 2nd in the V65 age category in a time of 55:37.
- Janette Kilgour came 1st in the V70 age category in a time of 1:12:25.
In the junior races which preceded the main event, we had some good victories in the U13 and U15 age categories.
In the U13 boys 3k Alexander Smith came 1st in a fantastic time of 10:29. Well done Alexander, that’s a great time. Finley Smith came 5th followed by his brother Jake Smith in 6th place. Fantastic running which won the boys the U13 Team prize.
In the U15 girls 3k race Mary Parkin finished 3rd female in a time of 11:35.
A course record was also broken yesterday. Holly Waugh of North Shields Poly broke the 5k record for U20 women’s race by over 30 seconds. The record now stands at 17:47. Not only was the record broken but Holly now holds the course records for U15, U17 and U20 races.
Thank Yous
As ever, huge thanks to all the volunteers on the moor and in race HQ in RGS without which we could not hold an event of this size each year. From lead bike to tail running to marshaling to number handouts, signups, results, cake stall sales and general tidy-up and odd jobs, you are all fantastic and we’re proud you’re part of the Heaton Harrier family. Thank you to every single person that ran yesterday, the 1-minute silence was impeccably held and we had some great feedback about the marshals and medals. Thank you to all the supporters out on the moor cheering on runners from all clubs near and far. We had representation from Dublin, Bristol, Edinburgh and Sheffield as well as runners from every single North East club. Thank you to AED for providing medical support on the day, Stuart Whitman for providing the wonderful photographs of the races, Timing Up North for providing the facilities for chip timing and speedy results and to RGS for letting us use their facilities. Thanks also to Womble Bond Dickinson for sponsoring the event. A huge thank you to those volunteers who helped set up the course in the dark: George, Phil, Doug and Chris, a lot of pre-event effort is involved in the planning. Thanks to Phil Green for race directing and course measurements as well as making sure it all runs smoothly at the start/finish area and to John James for being lead marshal. Finally, a special mention should go to Jason Wall who organises this race each year, preparation of which begins many months beforehand and sometimes goes unnoticed what he does behind the scenes to ensure we get to run this race each year.
