.*** New club vests now available from Steve £17.00 (Cheques only - "Belper Harriers") ***.

 Information DERWENT RIVER RELAYS - 19th JULY 2008.  ENTRY FORMS NOW AVAILABLE  Entry form

 22nd June    Update on the fell running scene.  Saul is organising a Sunday Special, this weekend (29th June) Please see flyer for further details.  Also Saul has produced a few reviews of the fell running that he has taken part in this summer Race Reviews

Congratulations to Rob Norman on yet another PB, his 3rd this month!  Rob, along with Rose, competed in the North of England 5k at Horwich, recording a 19.14 finishing time. 

 18th June    *** NEW*** For those mad-men (and women) out there, a new tab under the 'Club Diary' sections details all the local fell races over the next two months.  Have a go . . . you might just break something enjoy it! (Thanks to Saul for all the information)

 17th June   BELPER HARRIERS ACHIEVED A WELL DESERVED 2ND PLACE AT GRASSMOOR and remain in 2nd position in the league standings. RESULTS The challenge going into race 3 was to consolidate our overall 2nd place in the league by increasing the gap between us and 3rd placed Mansfield... and it was 'Mission Accomplished'; with the combined team building on that 1 point gap to now stand 4 points clear after 3 races! Despite one or two of our usual scoring runners not being available (particularly on the ladies team) this was, I think, the biggest turnout we've had in any league race to date - 33 runners!! 

The Belper Harriers men's team delivered another consistent performance, finishing clear of 3rd placed Ripley on the night and extending their lead over them to remain in 2nd place after the first 3 races. There were marked improvements over previous finishing positions shown by many of our runners; especially from the seven-man scoring team, who were led home by Geoff in a superb 5th place followed by Mark and Alan B. in 10th and 11th respectively. With our first 5 in the top 20, all seven counters finished within the first 31 places. One other performance of note, outside of the scorers, was Rob Norman's return to form in 46th place.     

Sharon was once again the star of the show in the ladies race - finishing 2nd behind Sutton's talented Claire Woolis, and claiming 38th position overall! This performance, in conjunction with Herbie Kaur and Jo Caborn, produced a very creditable 4th place for our ladies team (considering that we were without Theresa and Natalie). Although the ladies have now dropped one place to 3rd in the league standings, the resulting one point gap behind Mansfield could be eroded over the next two races - if we are able to field our top runners.       

It was encouraging to see another four new Harriers making their debuts for the club in this race... well done to  Nathan Porter, Maddy Woolley, Alice McDonald and Michelle Arnold.

 2nd June   'Harriers on Tour':  A total of seven Belper Harriers completed the gruelling four-day 'Tour of The Derwent Valley' over the recent Bank Holiday weekend - most of them for the first time! Karl Atton was the highest placed with an aggregate time of 2:00:28 over the four races. Adrian Teece and John Chapman were 46th and 48th respectively in 2:21:09 and 2:22:17;  followed by 18 years old Hannah Semeraro in 53rd (2:28:53). The remaining three places were filled by the Nicholls family  - Anthea, young Felix and Phil finishing 62nd, 63rd and 65th. All will now be able to show off their well-earned Tour t-shirts!  Several other Harriers took part in one or more of the Tour races; with Geoff Lowry's superb 5th in Friday's opening race proving to be the highlight.

 30th May    Two excellent performances were registered at the Edinburgh mararthon at the weekend.  Natallie Trethewey making her debut at the distance  finished in 318th place with a superb time of 3:11.19, closely followed home by Theresa Hempsall, completing her second marathon in as many months and setting a new PB, finishing 360th in a time of 3:13.07.  Well done to both of you! Natallie now holds the title for fastest Belper Harriers female over both the marathon and half marathon. . . . STOP PRESS . . . Long distance Belper Harrier Ewan McDonald also completed his 1st marathon in Edinburgh.  Ewan finished in a creditable time of 3:46.23.  Ewan is hoping to turn out for the Harriers later this summer in the BDL league whilst on his Derbyshire hols!

Saturday 17th May saw four Belper Harriers take on the White Peak Half Marathon; a point to point race finishing along the canal at Cromford.  First home after the gruelling downhill (!) was Krish Mahedevan to finish 14th in a time of 1:28.01.  Next over the line with a new PB was Ian Hays in 32nd place (1:32.47), just pipping Andrew Horsley in 38th position (1:34.09).  Finally a White Peak regular, Phil Bradley came in 160th with a time of 1:56.17.

The Belper Harriers team have built upon the superb 1st place achieved in the race 1 to now stand at 2nd place in the league table after 2nd BDL race held at Teversal Grange. A very strong showing from both of the clubs local to Teversal (Mansfield and Sutton) coupled with Heanor ladies being back up to strength as expected, made it difficult to scale those dizzy heights for a second time.  However, that takes nothing away from what was, once again, an excellent team performance (particularly as we were missing one of our three top ladies this time). With the men in 3rd and the ladies in 5th (and just 3 place points behind the 4th placers) the combined team took 4th place on the night behind the clubs referred to above. The resulting 2nd place to date, with a point in hand over 3rd placed Mansfield, just goes to show that posting that strong result in the opening race has stood us in good stead!  The challenge is now to consolidate this position by increasing our lead over them from race 3 onwards.   Results

Leading performances from Geoff in 12th place and Sharon in 55th place set the scene for some great individual runs, with four of our male scorers and one of our ladies being relatively new additions to the team. It was great to welcome back Tom Moulder, recently returned from his tour in Afghanistan, and to see him finish well up in 30th place. Congratulations also to Karl Atton, in what was his first race as part of the scoring team!   It was encouraging to see yet more Harriers making their debuts in this race... Hannah Semeraro, Jo Caborn, Claire Lightfoot and Andy Horsley.

Results summary:   

Race 1:                   BELPER  MEN  2^nd              BELPER LADIES 1^st             COMBINED TEAM 1^st 

Race 2:                   BELPER  MEN  3^rd              BELPER LADIES 5^th            COMBINED TEAM 4^th 

Overall:                  BELPER  MEN  2^nd              BELPER LADIES 2^nd            COMBINED TEAM 2^nd 

The ten or so of us who stayed on for the post-race trophy presentations in the Teversal Grange Inn , experienced an Oscars style celebration of Belper Harriers' achievements in the cross-country league series... Having only managed to secure a very small table proved to be our undoing though, as trophy after trophy piled up in our corner of the bar!!

 1st May    Plan your summer running with revised and updated Club Diary

 25th April    BELPER HARRIERS take 1st place in the BDL race 1, Darley Park!  A fantastic effort from the ladies and a strong men's team produced our first ever combined team victory.  Following the confirmation of today's results . . .

BELPER LADIES 1st             BELPER  MEN  2nd             COMBINED TEAM 1st   

. . . We’ve done it - in style.

With superb performances from Sharon in 58th, Natalie in 72nd and Theresa in 78th (2nd, 4th and 6th respectively in the womens’ race) our ladies scoring team stormed to victory over Sutton Harriers. Theresa also topped the VL40 listings on the night. 

The mens counters, led home once again by Geoff in 8th  place (and first VM40) were way ahead of third placed Ripley; but with Heanor’s seven counters all within the top 13 (including the first four places) 2nd was always the best position we could hope to attain.  Mark and Simon, back from their Marathon endeavours, performed well in 18th and 23rd and were ably supported by the off-road trio of Alan Billington, Saul Taylor and Graham Collins; with Krish making up the scoring team.

The fantastic Belper turnout of 33 runners created a sea of yellow at the start and produced many creditable performances outside the scoring positions. Amongst these were debut runs for the club from Anthony Beardmore (another of our London Marathoners), Marcus Hanford, Steve Meath and Liz Williams.  Adding in the supporters on the night (Steve, Hannah, Pete and Sam) and the marshalls we provided (Geoff S., Avis and Julie) brings the attendance for Belper up to 40, which must be a record!  We could even call it 42 if we include the new twins, Emily and Hannah! 

The next race takes place on the Teversal Trail, near Mansfield, on May 20th – where we hope to maintain our stong start.  Remember every runner counts!  [Steve]

 20th April    saw a smaller than usual contingent of Harriers take to the streets of Derby for the annual 10k race. Another year , another course change caused some post-race discussion over the correct distance!  A total of 16 Belper runners were led home by Marcus Handford (41.26), closely followed by Phil Butt, Patrick Phipps, David Horton and Ian Hays.  Marcus, Patrick and David all setting their best 10k times for Belper and moving up the rankings.  Dave Smith, Phil Shaw and Rob Norman were next up around the 44 minute mark with Phil just pipping Rob by 2 seconds; with John Chapman, Garry Fray and Simon Hackett all breaking 50 minutes.  Rosemary Arris-Pratt was the first lady home (51.00); Neil Wilson, Peter Kemp, Rose  Sensecall and Geraldine McLaughlin completed the Belper line-up.  Well done to all. (Anyone with photo's of the day, please forward to chris@belperharriers.co.uk

 14th April   LONDON MARATHON . . . Congratulations to our 6 runners in yesterdays marathon, all of whom put in excellent performances. Leading 'Team Belper' home was Simon Merwood in 3:00:00! One second away from breaking 3 hours, but Simon was delighted with his run and in a time that guarantees him a place in 2009 . . . by one second.  Simon was closely followed home by marathon regular Mark Riches in a time of 3:00:18. Mark was under the weather with an untimely cold but another creditable performance from him.  The ladies race was equally as tight with Sharon Mellors 3:16:23 just pipping Theresa Hempsall 3:16:58.  Again two super performances, Sharon's first for Belper and Theresa smashing her 2006 PB by over 10 minutes.  Finally Anthony Beardmore and Rob Shepherd put all their training to good effect finishing with a respectable times of 4:02:57 and 4:27:47.  Well done to all. 

Club Records - Updated to include all Spring races.  Any new PB's? Email chris@belperharriers.co.uk

 7th April   CONISTON 14 . . . Seven Harriers took on the 14m race around the shores of Lake Coniston this year, led home by Ian Hays in 1:46:28.  Ewan McDonald returned to dip under 2 hours with a time of 1:57:30.  Fiona Sellar became the 3rd fastest Harriers female round the course in 2:07:10.  Rosemary Arris-Pratt and Anthea Page completed the course in 2:13:02; Shelley Swindles and Alan Squires finished together in 2:31:38.

 31st March    The final Handicap race of the season, which took place on Tuesday, was almost  a  record breaker.... just one off the highest number of runners since we moved to the River Gardens - 26 competitors (we had 27 in Jan. and Dec. '07) - and just one off the highest number of personal bests on one night - 9 new PBs 4 River Gardens course PBs. (There were 10 in Jan. '08). Had Theresa run just 3 seconds faster, that PB record would have been equalled!
 
Leading the way with a win by just 9 seconds was Paul Trethewey. Paul smashed his previous best by over 4 minutes, and was closely followed in by Pete Kemp who shaved a similar amount off his best for the River Gardens course. (Pete has run nearly 5 minutes quicker still on the old course back in 2004). The other big PB of the night came from Saul Taylor, who knocked 3.5 minutes off his debut time from January. The other PBs ranged from 1.34 mins down to 11 second improvements.
 
Fastest on the night was Alan Bilington with a superb 36.43 mins. - this puts Alan back into 2nd spot on the rankings (of current members) after being usurped by Simon Merwood last month!  We can certainly look forward to some keen battles between these two when the Handicaps resume in October!
 
Congratulations to new member, Jo Caborn, who produced an excellent 50-09 run on her first attempt; and to Gel McLaughlin who was delighted to have ducked back under the 60 minute barrier. It was also good to see Georgie Bestwick back again after a long enforced lay-off. 

 18th March       Belper Ladies run in televised event...  Sharon Mellors and Theresa Hempsall, having been selected for the Derbyshire team following the County Cross-Country Championships, donned their first county vests to run in the Senior Ladies race at the Inter-Counties event last Saturday. The UK Inter-Counties Cross Country Championships have taken place in the beautiful surroundings of Wollaton Park in Nottingham for the past nine years.  These Championships are one of the most important cross-country meetings of the domestic season with over 4,000 competitors taking part across the ten age groups. Sky Sports once again broadcast several hours of TV coverage from the event.

The Championships, which bring together the best athletes of all ages, both men and women from all over the UK, also include the Finals of the UK Cross Challenge. The Finals are the official trials for Senior and under 20 men and women seeking places in the Norwich Union Britain and Northern Ireland team to run at the IAAF World Cross Country Championships, to be staged in Edinburgh on 30 March 2008.

Despite being well into their tiring London Marathon training schedules, both ladies gave a good account of themselves on the undulating 8K course, with Sharon finishing 180th in 34.24, and Theresa 219th in 35.55. Laura Kenney was the unexpected winner in 27.56 while Tom Humphries, who also won the English National just two weeks before at Alton Towers, was an impressive winner in the Senior Mens race.

Malcolm and Steve, who were there to support on the day, both witnessed the tremendous effort that Sharon and Theresa made for the Derbyshire team. It just goes to show that it is possible for runners from smaller clubs, such as ours, to gain representative honours! - Bring on 2009!!

 9th March   London Marathon preparations continued today with Harriers taking part in the annual Ashford 20, an excellent event to gauge your training for the big day.  Mark Riches led the way in 2.15, followed home by Simon Merwood in 2.32 and another super run by Natallie Trethewey in 2.35.

 7th March   CONGRATULATIONS! to Natalie Trethewey who became the fastest Belper Harriers female over the Half-Marathon distance at Reading last weekend.  Natalie aiming for a sub 1:37 time, flew home in 1:30.49 to finish 743rd out of 11,181 finishers.  Well done Natalie, a sub 1:30 is definately on for the summer.