On a blistering hot August Bank Holiday the Harriers were out in force again for  their home half marathon.  The Canterbury Half  is regarded as one of the country’s toughest  taking in the rolling countryside round Chartham  with some challenging hills along the route.  Tom Millard led the way for the full 13.1 miles and came through in first place in a very impressive time of 1.16.21. This smashed club mate Peter Hogben`s previous record on the course of 1.16.48 which he ran in extremely wet conditions when taking first place in the race in 2015. Tom was followed home  by fellow Harrier  Simon Jones in second place in an equally impressive time of 1.18.02.

The Harriers also took the men’s team prize with Jacob Hussey coming third for the Harriers in 1.31.00. This is the fourth year in a row that the club have taken the team prize, an excellent record in our home half marathon.

There were plenty of other debuts from Adam Elston, Dean Bradshaw and Mark Duffy all coming in under 1.44, and despite the demanding course and conditions   Paul Elderton registered a very creditable PB of  1.40.15.

Well done to all those who took part, full results can be found in the results section of the  Harriers website.

FV35 Prize winners at the East Kent Relays

The relay season finale was held in Canterbury on Tuesday 5th July and hosted by Canterbury Harriers in conjunction with Invicta AC.  It was a delightful sunny evening for the final one with a large turnout for the men and the women.

The Harriers put out 8 men’s teams and 6 ladies teams.  Both had some impressive times including the vet 35 Ladies A team, Jenny Benson, Fiona Tester and Nicola Charlton who had a combined time of 45:45, the quickest team on the night!  The vet 35 Ladies B team, Gemma Jeffrey, Ellen Rowe and Jennie Gardner also had a good combined time of 50:14.

In the men’s race the vet 60’s, Andy Farrant, Mick Ellsmore and Bob Davison, had an excellent combined time of 48:50, whilst the men’s senior A and B teams, Mike Mawby, Tom Millard, Simon Jones, Yarad Sabhat, James Scanlon, Steve Tugwell, Alex Horsley and Steve Hobbs, both had impressive combined times of 51:22 and 54:02 respectively.

The Harriers also came away with some trophies for the season including the mens’s Vet 50, and both the A and B team for the men’s Vet 60 also won overall.  The ladies also won both of the Vet 35 A and B overall team prizes.

Well done to all of those that took part this season, we have had some challenging weather conditions this year to contend with.

On Saturday 18th June the Canterbury Harriers put out 4 teams to run the
Saxon Shore Relay.

The Saxon Shore Relay is a 47 mile relay race which
follows a section of the ancient Saxon Shore Way in Kent. The race starts
near Folkestone and follows the White Cliffs to Dover and on to Sandwich.
From there the route turns inland through scenic Kent countryside to
Reculver where it again follows the coast to the finish on the sea-front at
Whitstable.

The race is broken down into 22 legs to be run by teams of 4 or 5 runners.
Each team member usually runs 4 or 5 legs of 2-3 miles each (9-12 miles
total per runner over the course of the day).

As each team member runs a leg the rest of the team drive to the end of the
leg where a changeover takes place.

The start time is between 9am and 11am with all teams finishing between 4pm
and 6pm.

Many of the teams dress up using a different theme, and this year one of our teams, Brians Babes, won the award for the best fancy dress, see above photograph, and the Little Misfits were the first all female team to finish, also see above.  Out of the other 2 teams, Team Saga, all male vet 60’s, were the highest placed Harrier team coming in at an impressive 7th out of 22 teams taking part.

Tuesday 31^st May saw  Canterbury Harriers battling against strong winds and some rather large waves down at Minnis Bay for the second round in the summer relays.

There were 5 men’s teams and 4 ladies teams taking part on the evening with some excellent performances among both the men and women. Ellen Rowe and Sarah Maguire recorded impressive times under 16 minutes – 15:43 and 15:38 respectively.  Simon Jones for the Men`s Senior A Team had a great run, despite the difficult conditions, completing  his leg in 12:08 with good back up from the rest of his team who all ran in under 15 minutes.

There are still 4 teams at the top of their groups, Ladies Vet 35 A and B teams, the Vet 55 Ladies and the Vet 60 Men B team.

The third round kicks off next week at Victoria Park in Ashford on Tuesday 7th June . Hopefully we won’t have to dodge big waves and struggle against strong winds!

All results can be found on the Canterbury Harriers website.

Tuesday night saw the Harriers out in force for the very first of the Summer Relays down in a very windy Folkestone.

There was a large turnout, with 17 men into 5 teams and one of the largest turn out of the ladies team ever, with 18 ladies, making up 6 teams!

Out of the 11 teams that took part 5 of those are currently top of their groups including, both A and B teams for the ladies vet 35, the vet 55 ladies and the A team for the vet 60 men. The other men’s teams are very competitive and a special well done to Simon Jones and Peter Hogben who raced back in under 15 minutes, 14.22 and 14.41 respectively.  And a big well done to Jo Norrington who was the second lady to return in a very respectful 17.21.

Well done to all of those that took part, it was a great effort by all. The next one is down in Minnis Bay on Tuesday 31^st May, hopefully we can get as many teams out again and keep those teams at the top!

Canterbury Harriers have had another excellent spring marathon season with a total of 35 members taking part in various events in the UK and abroad during April and  a host of  of debuts and PB’s along the way. At the Asics Greater Manchester Marathon there were 2 debuts, Yiannis Christodoulou, 3.14.44, and Paul Elderton, 3.54.12 and 2 PB’s –  Stephen Tugwell 3.10.57 and Thom Fenton, 3.23.34. On the same day Wendy Smith raced home in 4.21.48 to gain 1^st vet 55 lady in The Podplus Ashford and District Marathon along with Sally Silver taking part in her 72nd  marathon! One week later we saw the Harriers out in force again at the Brighton Marathon with 5 debuts, Jo Norrington, 3.45.30, Shane Moores, 4.08.07, Jaymes Cadby, 4.28.02, Briony Care, 4.30.45 and Jo Manser, 4.37.01 and   the PB of the day going to Paul O’Keefe in  3.46.24.  On the same day and slightly further afield Dave Waite ran the Boston U.S. marathon in 3.28.39 . On Sunday 24th   16 Harriers lined up for  the London Marathon, with 5 debuts, 3 PB’s and 2 new club records set! Tom Millard had a new PB of 2.31.48, finishing in an outstanding  95^th place and setting  a new marathon club record in the process and Thomas Hooley recording a PB of  3.39.37 and setting a  new club record in the vet 60 category.  There were some great debuts from Jenny Benson coming in at 3.20.29, Theresa Johns at 3.40.43, Rosalie Maltby at 4.15.50 and Jayne Bennie at 4.23.57. Karen Hoult and Shirley Pullen meanwhile had travelled north to Blackpool to make impressive marathon debuts at Blackpool in 4.57.36 and 5.03.27.

Full details can be found in the club results section.

Canterbury Harriers excelled  in the range of races over the Easter Weekend despite some really testing weather conditions. Weather wise Good Friday proved to be the best of the days and Simon Jones started off his weekend in the Folkestone 10 Mile with an excellent 7^th place and a PB in a time of  56 minutes and 17 seconds . On Saturday we had nine  runners in the Cardiff Half Marathon ( doubling as the IAAF Half Marathon World Champs). In what proved to be a spectacular race  , with storm force winds in the last two to three miles ,Tom Millard set his second overall  club record in the space of two weeks with a fantastic time of 01:11:37 for 37^th place. The following day , with the wind and the rain having made it`s way to Canterbury  , Simon Jones decided to brave the elements over the tough Canterbury 10K course and was rewarded with first place in a time of 35:05. Fiona Tester won the ladies race in a time of 46;50. With Tom Purnell finishing third in 36:06  and James Scanlon( fresh from winning the Whitstable Park Run on the previous day)  in 5<sup>th</sup> place with a time of 38:32. the Harriers also picked up the men`s team prize – see picture above.Full results for the weekend races can be found on the website results page.

Supreme Chief Marathon Coach  organiser Steve Clark reports that as of Sunday 20^th March there are only a few seats left on this year`s London Marathon coach. If you are interested please get in touch with him urgently.

A total of 20 Harriers took part in the Lydd 20 mile Road Race on Sunday 13^th March , a target race for those doing Spring Marathons. Tom Millard  had an outstanding run storming home to win the race in a PB time of 1 hr 53 min (by 8 mins) and setting a course record and a new Harriers club record in the process. He was followed home by Tom Purnell in 5^th place with a host of Harriers  having outstanding debut runs over the race distance or recording PB`s. Full details can be found in the club website results section.

This year`s East Kent Inter Club Relays kicks off on Tuesday May 17^th at Folkestone. Full dates and times are as follows:

Tuesday May 17th at Folkestone starting 19:15

Tuesday May 31st at Minnis Bay starting 19:30

Tuesday June 7th at Ashford  starting 19:30

Tuesday June 21st at Samphire Hoe, Dover starting 19:30

Tuesday July 5th at Canterbury starting 19:30

PLEASE NOTE THAT THERE WILL BE NO CLUB TRAINING SESSION ON THESE EVENINGS

 The relays are for all standards and ages and the entry fees are paid for by the club. All runners are guaranteed a run and with chip timing  accurate results are published usually within 48 hours. Further details  inc location/parking etc  will be sent out nearer the individual dates. For those who are nervous about dropping the baton do not be fooled by the accompanying picture – the handover is by tag touch.