Road Section Report – April 2025

Road Secretary’s Report – April 2025

What a busy month March was !  Lots of racing including the Club 6, two road championship races, the Northern Road Relays and several other events that saw the amber vest go global.

2025 Road Championships

There were two races again this month, one short and one long.  The long run caught the eye of two harriers, Helena and James who made their way to Dentdale for the hilly 14 miler.  And Mike and Darren made the shorter trip to Littleborough for the LABC 5k.

Congratulations to all four for getting excellent results in their respective age categories.

Mike Hall continues to lead the men’s championship and Helena, the ladies’.

There is plenty of time for that to change though.  All the races in the championship are on the website https://www.holmfirthharriers.com/championship/road-championship/  and a brief reminder is shown below.  The April races are the Brighouse 10k and the Leeds Half.

If there is a tie for 1^st/2^nd/3^rd place, the number of races entered will be taken into consideration.  If there is still a tie then the age graded scores will be used.

2025 Club handicap races (Club 6, Club 5, Club 10)

The Club 6 was held on Saturday 15^th March on the new course around the windmills above Ingbirchworth.  32 runners took part, a few down on last year, and there were some very positive comments about the new route.  Feedback after the race suggested a couple of tweaks that we’ll bring in next year.  Congratulations to Sean Doyle who took the Walter Greenwood trophy for fastest handicap, and to Ben Jarvis who took the Past Members trophy for fastest overall time.

Full results are on the website.

The Club 5 and 10 road races need you !   Please sign up to either run or help on the website.

• Past Members Memorial Club 5 – Tuesday 20 May 2025
• Club 10 – Tuesday 8 July 2025

Northern Road Relays

The Northern Road Relays took place at Redcar on 30^th March and we had a men’s and ladies’ team competing in the event.  The men’s competition consists of 12 legs, 3 long legs of 9.5k each and 9 short legs of 5k each.  The ladies’ event consists of 6 legs, 2 long and 4 short.  Both teams did brilliantly against stiff opposition from across the north of England with the men finishing 25^th and the ladies 15^th.  Many congratulations to all that took part.  The men’s result means that they qualify for the nationals – the first time this has happened in several years.  Great result.

Summer monthly 5k series

The clocks have gone forward, spring is officially here, the off-road timetable is about to kick in and the Tuesday evening summer 5k handicap series is back.  This is a series of six races held on (roughly) the middle Tuesday of each month around Magdale.  This is open to all club members and gives everyone a chance to improve upon their time each month as well as running against the rest of the club in a friendly and encouraging competition.  Last year we had many new members running who really enjoyed the events and I hope that this year will be the same, particularly with all the new Zero to Hero Harriers that we’ve welcomed over the past couple of months.

The first run is on Tuesday 15^th April, starting from 7:00pm at Magdale Fields.  See here for more details and to sign up.

The Joe Percy Invitational 10k

Holmfirth Harriers has again been invited to send teams to the Joe Percy – a local team 10k event held near Farnley Tyas.  This is a great local race with representatives from all over the district.  We normally enter one or two teams of ladies and gents so please sign up for this one.  The race costs £10 per person and the first 10 male finishers for a club count as the first men’s team, the first 10 females count as the first ladies team and so on.  The race is on a Wednesday evening, 11^th June starting near Storthes Hall.  Details are here – please sign up to represent the club.

Other races

Other races that I’ve been able to find this month are shown below.  Please let me know if you would like any of your results included in this monthly update.

There were no less than five half marathons this month where Holmfirth runners took part taking them to Scunthorpe and Cambridge as well as staying closer to home.  An excellent result by Richard at Liversedge coming 2^nd overall and PBs from Elspeth at Sheffield and James at Wilmslow.  The Thirsk 10m and Spenborough 20 mile added to the long runs in March with a few 10ks thrown in for good measure.

And finally some results from our international representatives this month with club members travelling to Lisbon, Dublin and Tokyo.

As always, if you’d like your races and achievements celebrated in the Road Update, please let me know by finding me at the club or dropping me an email.

Kevin Dessoy / 01Apr25