Author: Jason Brogan
Adam Scott – We wish him all the best!!!
Adam Scott is 24 year old student/apprentice studying his Masters in Acoustics (sound) at Salford University. His contribution to Manchester Harriers Club has been most influential; his vibrant mood, caring attitude, immense energy, hard working mentality and leadership has been experience through-out training many a session and displayed with precision at track meetings/ competitions.
Such fine attributes and skills has been recognised by a company in Hong Kong who head hunted Adam for his Acoustics talents; they want the young man to pioneer working in the area of constructing Speakers (Home Entertainment systems) and/or insure the sound quality is of the highest standard. Adam has been learning to speak Mandarin and will still complete his Masters alongside attending to his new found position. Good luck! They have hired the best!!!
Senior Athletes, Manchester Harriers & A.C.
Manchester City Games
Manchester Harriers & A.C: out in force to Support and Volunteer
~ by Debbie Beresford
What a weekend, starting with Saturday 25th May with the City Games taking part in Manchester City Centre, with the Sprints down Deansgate and the Field Events at Albert Square. We were asked to come along by Nova to represent a local club, so 50 Athletes, Volunteers, Parents came along to support the events and show what a great event it is. We all got red wristbands to give us access to the trackside and were next to the athletes and their warm ups. All our members has a great time, especially Caitlin Carroll who was a wished Happy 12th Birthday, along with Molly, Caitlin and Alice who won signed t-shirts signed by the Athletes competing at the Games. The highlight of the day was watching the Long Jump and Pole Vaults, with Greg Rutherford, Chris Tomlinson, Stef Reid to name but a few, all performing outside the Town Hall in Manchester. Next was a Group photo with Brendan Foster with a few of our members and this was the highlight of the Seniors day, especially when he stated to Jane Skertchley – MANCHESTER HARRIERS is a Proper Running Club!!!, we certainly all agree on that one!
Once this area had finished it events we all moved over to Deansgate for the last few Track events with the climax of the 150m, with Christopher Lemaitre winning the final event. All the club has really enjoyed the day and the lovely warm, sunny Manchester weather was ideal. To complete the day the Girls caught up with Dwan Chambers and Greg Rutherford for a quick photo call to end the day.
Some of the athletes competing were: Jonnie Peacock, Stef Reid, Alan Oliveira, Felix Santchez, Allyson Felix, Jodie Williams, Andy Turner, Perri Shakes-Drayton, Greg Rutherford, Chris Tomlinson, Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce, Chris Lamaitre, Dwan Chambers and Mark Lewis Francis, to name only a few.
Next day Sunday 26th May, saw the Manchester Bupa 10K, with 10 volunteers from the Club offering their time to come along and volunteer to marshal for the club. We were positioned on the junction of Portland and Princess Street at the area where the Waves meet. We were up early and at Manchester Central for 8am to collect out Jackets, lunch, ID and very flattering Yellow plastic marshal’s bib, on we went to our marshalling position and deployed to various points nearby with a group of us working the roped area between the waves. Our volunteers were great and especially with such an early start, I want to thank, Lorraine, her sister, Richard, Jeanette, George, Lydia, Caroline, Kes, Jason for their support. We had a number of Athletes running on the day, so hopefully they all had a great race and some good finishing times!!
Again we were very lucky to have such a lovely sunny day and it got very warm as the morning progressed so not ideal for the athletes but a welcome change for the volunteers. Once we had taken care of all five waves and helped clear away, some went off to see the finish, meet friends or in my case pop back home and start stripping wallpaper and dismantling a wardrobe!!
Finally Monday 27th May, this was the Youngsters Mini & Junior Run at Sportcity/MCFC stadium. We had a little lye in as we were not needed until about 9.30am, so the volunteers could get there a little later. We were on the Junior extension route round the outdoor track and approaches so a great viewing section and some competitive runners at this point. Again we got our kit on arrival and those lovely Yellow plastic bibs, as today was a little cooler and windy we welcomed the jackets, but luckily no rain to be seen until after the event. Again a massive thank you to all our volunteers, with 10 in attendance today, so thanks to – Shaz, Kes, Bev, Joan, Stan, George, Dave, Jo and Clare.
It was great to see the youngsters having such a great time, with a lot of them way ahead of their adult runner with them in the younger races. Saw a number of youngsters from the Club with Louise Stiles winning the Younger Junior race and her sister Alice coming 3rd in the older age group.
Again very lucky with the weather a little windy but stayed dry and bright.
All in all a great weekend for the club, enjoy the photos as some great ones.
PERFECT TEN FOR HARRIERS
The Club’s cross country section finished the season in style with ten members of the squad being picked to represent Greater Manchester in the Inter Counties Cross Country Championships in Birmingham.
This is the highest number of athletes the club has had selected to run for the county since the Greater Manchester team came into existence in 1993.
It is a great achievement for all those selected and is reward for all the hard work both they and their coach Carl Summers have put in over the course of a very hard and muddy season.
Those selected were:
Under 13s
Girls – Eleanor Kenny, Megan Taylor and Danielle Stringer
Boys – Connor Fazakerley, Matty Fox and Ben Skertchly
Under 15s
Boys – Donnacha Maguire and Thomas Taylor
Under 17s
Boys – Jonathon Stewart
Seniors
Men – Ed Fazakerley
Pictured below are Eleanor Kenny, Connor Fazakerley, Ben Skertchly, Donnacha Maguire, Thomas Taylor and Jonathon Stewart.
SUCCESS FOR THE JUNIORS AT THE GM CHAMPIONSHIPS
The club’s junior cross country section have enjoyed great success at the recent Greater Manchester Schools Cross Country Championships.
In the Senior Schools’ races held at Leigh Sports Village, Eleanor Kenny finished an excellent second in the girls year 7 race losing out narrowly in a sprint finish. Emily Hughes ran very well finishing fifth in the same race.
In the boys Year 7 race Connor Fazakerley worked his way through the field to finish third.
In the Primary Schools’ races held at Gatley on a heavy course Alice Stiles overcame illness to run extremely well to take third place with Beth Smyth following closely behind in fourth place.
Congratulations to them all.
Edinburgh 2012
Manchester Harriers Senior Athletes once again attend and compete at the Edinburgh Festival Weekend
After having such a fabulous time last year, Rachel kindly volunteered (with a little gentle persuasion) to organise our trip again. This year we stayed at the Travel Lodge at Musselburgh as the Premier Inn had doubled in price so out of range. Hotel was basic but ideal in location & good size rooms. Richard very kindly volunteered his school mini but with him & Andrew sharing the driving & what a bonus it was we could get around & kept costs down. We travelled up Friday night & grabbed a bite to eat on route and got there just in time for a quick drink at the local Golf Club with Jenni & Helen who came up by train from London. We travelled home after the Marathon had ended and all arrived safely back around 10pm so a long but very enjoyable weekend.
Many thanks RACHEL & RICHARD !!!!
The entrants were:
- 5k– Andrew & Debbie Beresford, Lesley Loftus
- 10k– Richard O’Regan
- Half Marathon– Debbie Beresford, Jenni Cunniffe, Stacy Benson, Ros Miles, Andrea Williams, Lorraine Kelsey, Wendy Woodhead, Alyson Adams, Kathryn Holmes, Lorraine’s Sister Helen Kelsey & Caroline Baba
- Marathon – Rachel Gorajala & Alan Finney
Below are a few personal accounts of a great weekend both competitive racing and a social outing.
As a club we would like to pass on our sincere thanks to the Festival organisers who did an amazing job & helped us greatly with a few entry problems we had and it was very much appreciated, they did us proud and we all thoroughly enjoyed the weekend and hope to come back next year!!.
~ Debbie
10k
I do not like early starts but the walk through Edinburgh to the start line was lovely, with the sun up and a buzz about the place. The race started at 9.00am by which time it was already warm. The first 1.5 – 2.0 Km was uphill and difficult and at one point I thought I was actually going to have to walk! Once past that point it was reasonably flat apart from another small uphill section halfway round. The scenery was stunning and whilst the course was challenging, there was a real sense of achievement once you got to the last 1.5Km which was all downhill. The amount of support from the crowd was tremendous and in particular from the Harriers who had all got up early to support me and the 5K runners instead of having a lie-in; thanks everyone! A respectable time, but I much prefer flat courses. A great weekend with a cracking bunch of people and having seen the half marathon the following day, it has given me fresh impetus to try it in the future (after wimping out of this one due to a lack of training). Thanks to Rachel for organising the event and to Debbie for her continual support and encouragement.
~ Richard O’Regan
E – Edinburgh, our destination
D – Driving up with plenty of goodies to share – anyone for crisps, chocolate, pork pie or a Mojito! ?
I – Into the minibus at 7.15am on Sunday, ready for our day ahead
N – Nerves – in the starting pen, just jangling slightly
B – Bang, the gun fires and we’re off
U – Up and down, following the route and thousands of others, through Holyrod Park, past Arthurs Seat and onto the prom.
R – Running well now, feeling good, enjoying the atmosphere
G – Great crowds really spur me on near the end
H – Hurrah – the finish is here. What a great run!
What a great weekend. Thanks to all my Harrier pals who I shared it with and ‘Well Done’ to them all for their fantastic efforts and many PBs that were achieved over the course of the different races.
~ Kathryn & Alyson
Our return trip to the Edinburgh Marathon festival was even more enjoyable than the first despite some of us being stopped by the police within minutes of leaving the hotel and there being no Lucozade freebies to stock up on. The hotels location walking distance from the beach was also very handy given the glorious weather and a few of us decided to take advantage of it and spent a few lazy hours resting up for our half marathon.
The temperature for the half marathon was warm but not too bad and the support on the course was great, especially at 8 miles where we spotted our fellow Manchester Harriers clapping and cheering. The out and back section at the end of the course also gave us the opportunity to cheer on our fellow harriers running who were in front and behind. After a quick shower it was back to the finishing straight to cheer on the poor marathon runners who had set off in the full sunshine just as we had finished.
Looking forward to the next club excursion!
~ Caroline
I don’t know which terrified me more, the thought of the 26.2 mile first marathon ahead or the trip advisor comments on the Travel Lodge Musselburg (The Bates Motel has more kerb appeal!). Despite being a marathon virgin as the day approached I started to think that my biggest problem may not be the mileage but the temperature. Heatstroke, dehydration and sun burn were a real prospect and a bit of a surprise – this was Scotland after all!
After carb loading on the Saturday and hydrating as much as possible the Sunday morning dawned quite dull and overcast, winner! Sadly by the time the 10.00 Am start came round, and the rest of the team were pressing for the half marathon finish the sun came back with a vengeance. Waiting nervously at the start the upbeat tunes did nothing to calm my nerves and at the sound of the buzzer we set off at a reasonable pace. By the quarter marathon mark the weather was already taking it’s toll and runners were starting to flag. The fabulous folk of Musselburgh were out with drinks and hosepipes and we all appreciated their generosity and support. At this point I was really feeling the heat and I can’t even think about how the guy in the squirrel costume got round! About half way through I decided that this was not the day to try and break a four hour and I eased up, a lot! I took on as much water as possible and kept taking the gels and snacks and like the proverbial Forest Gump “I just ran”.
That final stretch with the faces of family and the Manchester Harriers cheering me on was great, legs felt really strong and maybe I could have been quicker but the most important thing for me was to finish, and I suppose you have to run the course according to the conditions.
Thanks for all the support Harriers and for a fantastic weekend away and thank you to the Travel Lodge Musselburg which is much nicer inside than out and has a great team who really looked after us.
~ Alan
Results as follows:
5K
- Debbie Beresford 26:48min 2nd vet 45 64th
- Andrew Beresford 37:10min
- Lesley Loftus 37:09min
10k
- Richard O’Regan 49:01min
Half Marathon
- Jenni Cuniffee 1:46:18
- Alyson Adams 1:56:21
- Stacey Benson
- Caroline Baba 1:57:44
- Wendy Woodhead 1:59:03
- Lorraine Kelsey 2:00:03
- Kathryn Holmes 2:03:24
- Andrea Williams 2:08:22
- Debbie Beresford 2:12:30
- Helen Kelsey 2:14:52
- Ros Miles 2:29:39
Marathon
- Rachel Gorajala 4:02:28
- Alan Finney 5:06:04
Marvellous Effort from all and very well done!!!!!!!!!!
Manchester Harriers and Athletics Club 
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