Vitality London 10,000m, The Mall (Sun. 22nd Sept.)
The Vitality London 10,000m starts in The Mall with the course winding its way through central London passing many of the capitals iconic landmarks, finishing in front of Buckingham Palace. Sixteen club runners participated. James Pitts was our first finisher in 37:52. Others to break 40 minutes were Jonathan Sargent (38:05), Clinton Lowe (38:59) and Stephen Thompson (39:00). Phoebe Cooper was our first female runner in 41:03. (Full results).
Stephen Thompson - James Pitts - Jonathan Sargent
James' performance takes him second in the clubs road grand prix competition with one race to go.
Eridge Park 10, Blackham, East Sussex (Sun. 22nd Sept.)
With the promise of an inclusive pint of “refreshment fluid” (Larkins Best) and the bounties of a groaning table of homemade cake, there are at least two compelling reasons to be amongst the finishers of the Eridge 10 trail race writes Peter St-Amour. Four Cambridge Harriers took up the challenge of this event south of Tunbridge Wells, which wasn’t run in 2023 and returned to the calendar this year.
Billed as “muddy hard and deeply steep”, the route doesn’t disappoint. Entirely offroad around the lakes, fields and gullies of a private estate, the overnight deluge had left plenty of surface water and slippery mud in quite a cross country contrast to the prior weekend’s bone dry English Championships. The course isn’t ten miles either, a fact announced to as we lined up to start.
With barely a flat part on it and named sections including the Tomb of the Unknown Harrier (not the Cambridge variety thankfully), there’s lots to keep you distracted from the views. Recent forestry work had churned up the trails in the latter half of the course, and proper bogs offered the chance to wave goodbye to your shoes before a mostly downhill last section finally let the legs loose.
First to claim his pint was Christian Poulton in eighth overall and second in class M50, riding his superpowers high following a great performance at the Dragon’s Back Race earlier this month. Next in was Peter St-Amour (15th overall, fifth M40), followed by Clem Dixon (124th overall, fifteenth M60) and Stephen Brown (137th overall, sixteenth M60).
Redcar Half-Marathon, Redcar, North Yorkshire (Sun. 22nd Sept.)
Congratulations to Rose Baker who travelled to the North Yorkshire seaside town of Redcar for the Redcar Half-Marathon which doubled as an England Athletics Masters half marathon qualifier for the representative match scheduled for June 2025 in Swansea. To qualify athletes needed to finish in the top three in their respective age group and achieve the relevant qualification time (1:54:00) at this race. Rose crossed the line in 131st place overall, but more importantly she claimed first W60 and was well inside the QT with 1:34:45.
Larkfield 10km, East Malling, Kent (Sun. 22nd Sept.)
Mark Penny was the only club member at this race, finishing in 26th place with a time of 38:31.
CapTEN Trail Race, Seatown, Dorset (Sun. 22nd Sept.)
James Floyd ran the CapTEN trail race and writes" I ran the CapTEN race on Sunday in Seatown Dorset. Was a challenging 11 miles (not ten), however I clocked 18.4km and 1,002m of elevation. It is a small race organised by two club runners, and 90% of the field are club runners. The CapTEN is a two lap format taking in Thorncombe Beacon and Golden Cap twice. It was a very wet Sunday morning but the sun came out for the start and overall it was very humid with some muddy sections. I came 20th out of 56 runners in 2:18:44."
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