The race is fast approaching and we are down on entries compared to the same time last year! Are you doing your bit to publicise the race?
It would be great if every member of the club recruited one person to run the race. How you do this is up to you -it could be by encouragement, nagging, bribery, threats or a combination of all of these. If you are not helping on the day, then why not enter the race yourself? Don't want to hear excuses, if my daughter can do it off virtually no training last year, then so can you. She said that completing her first half marathon gave her more satisfaction than eating a giant bag of honey coated popcorn. Now if you knew my daughter's sweet tooth you would be as amazed as I was by this confession. So don't be a wuss, there is still time to get some training in and recruit someone else as well. It's a highly rated event judging by the very positive feedback from previous participants and all proceeds go to two deserving charities, East Cheshire Hospice and the Macclesfield Track Appeal. So what are you waiting for?
The Under 15 Boys finished a close second to West Cheshire in the NW Sportshall Final in Wigan on 2nd March. This was the final indoor sportshall competition for many of the team because they have reached the upper age limit.
Final points (official results still to be published) were:
West Cheshire - 172 Macclesfield - 166.5 DASH - 123.5 Halton and Frodsham - 108 Handforth - 77
The whole team (Alex Baker, Josh Edgar, Matthew Hamilton, Andrew Hilliard, Lloyd Hilton and Matthew Wheelton) performed strongly in a range of events, topped off with a thrilling relay.
Individual medals were awarded as follows:
Gold - Josh Edgar in the shot, Lloyd Hilton in the standing triple jump and 6 lap Silver - Andrew Hilliard for the vertical jump and Lloyd Hilton for the shot Bronze - Matt Hamilton for the 2 lap and Alex Baker for the standing triple jump.
If you've entered Wilmslow but will be unable to run please could you let Anne Farmer know or post on the Forum, so that others who are keen to run and not entered can, and also to make sure that we have good Cheshire Grand Prix teams out. Read also the Cheshire AA number swapping guidelines here .
Dear All,
The 24th ASICS Wilmslow Half Marathon is on Sunday 30th March 2008 (10.30am start).
Venue: Wilmslow Rugby Club. Entries are now CLOSED - the event is full!
However....
I've received a request from the chief marshal of Wilmslow Half Marathon asking if Macclesfield Harriers & AC could help them by supplying 10 - 12 marshals.
The area we usually cover is around the 7 mile marker.
Please let me know if you (or anyone you know - perhaps 'other halves') would be able to help us marshal at this event. Your support is as always much appreciated.
Fron Jon Falkner... The David Lewis race may not go ahead as a short race, so we have opted for the 'Hollins Green 5k' plus the 'Pie and Peas 5' mile race (both of these races count for the Cheshire Champs). We are also dropping Bowden 5k in early June as it is not in the Cheshire Champs and quite close to the Hollins Green race.
Janet's report for the final race, and Anne's report for the Ladies Senior and Veterans teams for the season, is here
As you can see both the Ladies Senior and Veterans teams won their championships, as did the U11 Boys, with the U13 Boys coming second.
Congratulations to all individuals who competed in the series - well done !!, and especially :- Bethany Burrows - 2nd U11 Danielle Wallis - 1st U13 - having won all 4 races. Tom Grundy - 2nd U20 Anne Farmer - 1st Senior Seonaid Murray - 2nd Senior Andy Lamont - 3rd Senior Rachel Pleeth – 2nd O35 Alison Hartopp – 1st O40 Barbara Murray 2nd O50 Raph Murray - 3rd O50 Barry Blyth - 1st O60
FOUNTAIN SQUARE PHYSIOTHERAPY & SPORTS INJURY CLINIC - FREE OPEN DAY Saturday 23rd February – 10am – 4pm. 3 Buxton Old Road, Disley, Stockport, SK12 2BB, 01663 764864 Taster sessions available in: Sports Massage, Core Stability,Computerised Running Analysis and Reflexology. Physiotherapists, Qualified Dietician and Personal Trainer will be on hand to answer questions and give advice. To avoid disappointment please ring 01663 764864 to pre-book a taster session. Their website is here.
(Disclaimer.... obviously Fountain Square are an independent organisation and Macclesfield Harriers accepts no responsibility etc. etc....)
Don't forget also - JOHN HONEY PHYSIOTHERAPY attend the track on the FIRST TUESDAY of every month for FREE consultations and advice - their website is here.
John Honey Physiotherapy, Trinity House Practice, 150 to 152 Cumberland Street, Macclesfield, SK10 1BP . Tel. 01625 500777.
Andy Gray has sent me an updated version of his analysis of the club runners and "normalised" performance spreadsheet. The latest version can be found here. (updated to 11th Feb!)
Below is the original explanation plus a link to the first version of the spreadsheet...
"Am sending you an excel spreadsheet trying to compare the levels of performance on different terrain within the club. Its based entirely on finishing times and calibrated so that scratch time equates to 1 hour at Wilmslow half ( a rating of 0) and 2 hours means a rating of 1000. I’ve tried to cover local races particularly with Macc involvement, and hope to do eg Staff Moorland series and London Marathon when time permits.
The idea was to be able to see how good a run was especially on the fells (ie no time/distance significance) compared to more runners than for instance Tim; so avoiding the assumption that Tim ran badly rather than the rest of us ran well. I know it will have its faults and foibles but it’s based on all runners median ratings to allow for an individual bad run. I’ve double checked Cloud and Wincle trout runs, I suspect they look out of line because many non fell runners ran in them making the more experienced runners appear better.
If anyone has any suggestions or races I should analyse then let me know, and if anyone was wondering in previous lives I was a train spotter and spent more time in the bookies than at college.(I am in remission of both afflictions now)"
Another spreadsheet for this year has appeared here
16 club members competed in the Alsager 5 mile road race on Sunday.
Congratulations to the ladies team of Sarah Harris, Anne Farmer and Alison Hartopp - who all had great runs - and won the ladies team prize !!!, against some strong competition in what is always a hotly contested race.
See below for Anne's writeup.
Full Harriers results below. - and race results and photos here
96 Steve Lomas 28:58 104 Chris Bentley 29:17 110 Raphael Murray V50 3 29:31 120 Sarah Harris L 14 29:52 123 Anne Farmer L 16 29:56 136 Andrew Gray V40 14 30:28 213 Alison Hartopp L40 5 32:36 241 Chris Harbron 33:09 323 Barbara Murray L50 1 35:14 353 Mark Wheelton V45 40 35:52 387 Neil Murphy V45 48 36:33 482 Charlie Seddon V50 37 38:33 506 Andy Gildon V50 39 38:55 574 Jenny Tatler L 106 40:18 672 Peter Williams V45 74 42:30 699 David Hancock V55 42 43:14
The updated road running championship tables are here, with Steve Lomas taking an early lead in the men's competition, and a tie at the top of the ladies competition between Rachael Lawrance and Sarah Harris. Next championship race is the Wilmslow Half on the 30th March.
The Northern XC championships took place at Roundhay Park last weekend, with a strong attendance from Macclesfield Harriers.
Here is a report from the Ladies Team, who as always acquitted themselves admirably (that means they did very well). Bit lacking for mud for them I believe though.
All club results (well all the ones I could find, but let me know if I've missed you !) are below. Well done all !!!
Full Results are here, and here is a writeup of the event.
Congratulations to club member Mark Hartell on completing the 'HURT' 100 mile trail race in Hawaii last weekend.
Mark finished in 7th place (so far as I can tell !) in what looks like a gruelling challenge, apparently only about 20% of entrants completed the course.