Not as dry as previously predicted! The heavy rain overnight and the earlier children’s races churned up the course quite badly in places. Last year there was a biting strong wind which slowed people up, so the times this year for exactly the same courses were quicker despite it being cold enough and hailing at times. The Senior Men supposedly ran 6.25 miles but actually it was about 9K, with the M60s 7K, and the Women 5K. For the first time in 20 years we had a moderately competitive senior men’s team thanks to the amazing influx of new members due to Dawn’s implementation of her election promise: if it’s young, male and has a pair of trainers, it belongs in a Harriers vest. And the new Membership Secretary will be pleased with the result – a clear 3rd place in the team event and a 3rd place in the Masters 35-49 team category.
15th Shaun H …………38m43
19th Joe W …………….39m53
25th Glen ………………40m54 (3rd M40)
29th Dan J …………….41m15
30th Tony W ………….41m27
33rd David B ………….41m57 (3rd M55)
40th Tom J …………….44m13
50th Llyr ………………..49m??
Setting off with the above and sharing that first lap of hail were the men aged over 60, who had the joy of turning off after 3 laps. Last year the same elderly persons (Martin, Chris, and Fred) won gold for the team, and this year they repeated the feat in a slightly different order (Martin, Fred, and Chris). Martin also won the M65 category outright and Fred was 3rd M60.
Somewhat surprisingly, we only had four women running but remarkably they earned two sets of team medals – 3rd Seniors and 2nd Veterans (over 35). This was despite Victoria only just returning from illness and not quite up to her usual best on such a tough course.
5th Ceri D ………………..23m04 (1st W50)
13th Victoria…………….25m35 (3rd W40)
19th Katy ………………..27m00
24th Menai ……………..29m57
All eyes now turn to Oswestry where our new-found strength in men should serve notice that next year we mean business. It will be interesting to see how close we can get to the the top of Division 2. If Prestatyn doesn’t turn up it is just possible that we can get promotion this year, but that is hardly likely so we will have to win the Division in 2017/18 to ensure promotion next year. The women really do need to get their act together to move up from 4th to 3rd in Division 1 and then next year could be very tough for them unless we have some of our new younger women members prepared not just to improve but also to actually turn up to races.
