Harrock Hill Coming up…and up..and up

The first of the infamous Harrock Hill series takes place on Wednesday night with Harriers sending a hardy contingent of runners to test their mettle. With only 3 runners needed for a team we hope to field at least 2 squads on the night.

Race HQ is the farmers arms at Bispham Green, (point your Sat Navs at L40 3SL) with the race starting at 7.30pm. Entry fee is £3.50 or £10 for the full 4 race series. There will be a few Harriers taking part in the full series so it may be best value to get your £10 in early!

Anyone taking part is advised to take a little care and avoid the heroics of Andy Eccles at last years event: Harrock 2012

 

Amberswood 10k latest news

Wigan Harriers race organisers have been out on the Amberswood race route over the weekend and despite the recent rain the course is still looking quite firm underfoot. We generally recommend a trail shoe for the event, but if we get a little sunshine over the next few weeks even a road shoe may do! It really is a lovely place to run and hard to believe you are in the heart of Industrial Wigan when surrounded with such greenery.

Jubille Road Races – race 1

I’ve only run this race once before and I can’t say it was an enjoyable experience. What then possessed me to talk Gary Wane into doing it, thereby obliging me to join him? Probably the Kronenburg 1664 on Sunday night – lesson to be learned there. As “targeted” race day approached, there was an ever decreasing number of likely Harriers runners. Dave Waddy was obviously having similar misgivings to me as we emailed each other late race day afternoon. “I’ve been trying to think of excuses not to run, but ‘it’s going to hurt like hell’ is probably unacceptable” was Dave’s conceding agreement that we were going to have to run. A text to Kev confirmed that we would at least have a team of four, and there was even a hint that a certain PB expert might show up.

Horwich 5 miler Coming Up!

The 2013 Horwich RMI Jubilee Road Race series kicks off this Wednesday, (15.03.2013) with Wigan Harriers hoping to send a large contingent of runners to compete.

Race HQ is at Rivington Parish Hall, (BL6 7SE) where registration will be open from 6pm. Entry is a bargain £5 per race, or £12 for the whole 4 race series. The races continue every 3rd Wednesday throughout June, July and August with Harriers expecting  to have a presence at all the fixtures.

This series comes highly recommended and is well worth a go.

More details on the Jubille Series Website

Market Drayton 10k – Joannes Race Report

I last did this road race in 2010 when it was still sponsored by the Muller dairy and the sun was shining but I ended up running a personal worst. Me and this 10km had unfinished business. However the course this time was slightly different. Opposite way round to what I run it last time and no running through the factory. £13 attached entry fee for runners who are lulled to the West Midlands with the promise of a bumper goody bag. Haven’t been doing much steady miles the last few weeks but thought I needed to take my running to the next level by starting the Harriers hills and speed efforts. My body isn’t used to it cause i ended up on the treatment table yet again yesterday with the muscles at the top of the left hip tightened up to an extent that my IT band is knocked out. Was told not a good idea to run today but if I had to then to run it steady so there was no thoughts of a PB in my mind today.

Font Romeu Diary

Whilst the ret of us were braving the gales and showers of the British Spring, Darren Jackson and Julie Platt were sampling the life of an elite athlete. Darren shares his Font Romeu diary below:

 

Mrs Platt had arrived and we were going to tea with the elite athletes. She

was star struck but it didn’t take her long to find her tongue!!

 

5th May.

This morning was exciting. On the way to the Lake for our first hour run we

saw 3 wild bore and 800mtrs further it was amazing to see a family of dear

crossing the road, the young didn’t cross and shuffled back into the woods -

amazing, don’t get that in Wigan.

Lovely afternoon, for a further 30minute recovery run. I (Darren) had not

been to sleep because Mrs Platt being her usual self is not able to remain

quiet, so the recovery was harder than my previous recovery runs the week

before she had arrived.

At the end of day one I had to politely tell Mrs Platt to be quiet at 23:40.

Haigh 4 miler – May 2013

Wednesday 8th May saw four Wigan Harriers take on the Haigh Hall 4 mile road race. For 3 of the runners this was not their first time but for Mike Harris it was a chance to do “a Millington” and register a PB over this distance as a newbie.

The course HQ is at Wigan Rugby Union Club which gave an opportunity for Dave Collins, Jayne Taylor, Gary Wane and Mike Harris to do a decent warm up as the course started within Haigh Hall. After giving the trees and shrubs a decent watering the Harrier’s quartet were ready to take on the hill start. Everyone noticed that Gary was really pumped and up for it, Dave concluded that Mel must have been feeding him raw meat all week!

Wray Caton Fell Race – Shonas Report

Some years back we were driving home across Caton Fell when silhouetted against the setting sun we saw… the magic round about. “Did you see that? I’m not mad am I???” Down into the village we discovered it had been taken over by giant green men, knights and maidens and all sorts of other scarecrows. Since then we’ve gone to see the Scarecrow festival a couple of times and noticed marker flags across the fell. This year we were definitely going to go to the fair – the question was “was I hard enough for the fell race?”. Probably not but this is my year – I’ll give anything a go! Well not quite anything…

Alan Seddon Thankyou 10k – Blackpool Report

The Alan Seddon Thank You 10k in Blackpool on Saturday, (05.05.13), was the perfect opportunity for four of Harriers finest this weekend. Gary Fitzpatrick, Gary Wane, Peter Mills and myself, (Graham Millington), all felt the pull of this fast, flat, PB perfect course to capitalise on recent good form. Held on the paths and roads around Stanley Park this race followed the same route as the rest of the Fylde coast Running series with a fabulous finish on the race track itself.

Gary Fitzpatrick had a PB still shiny from the Bolton 10k a couple of weeks back, whilst Peter Mills’  own all time best was only set at St Helens 10k. My own PB of 43:57 was achieved at hilly Langdale Daffodil race 3 weeks ago leaving just Gary Wane with a PB older than his shorts, (circa 46 minutes dating back to Amberswood trail last year). It was Gary who was most inspired to smash a few records with the pre-race banter suggesting it was time for “eyeballs out”, “run hard or die trying”. I settled for a quote for the King of Running Excess himself Kev Edwards with “time to open the pain locker”.

Wigan Harriers April News Round Up

How satisfying to see the numbers booming at both the Tuesday and Thursday night sessions now that the clocks have finally gone back. The milder weather and lighter nights have enabled us to switch Tuesdays to the more picturesque surroundings of Haigh Country Park with a great turn out for those testing hill reps. We have been blessed with some fine weather so far whilst pounding up our own “Heartbreak Hill”

The Thursday session sees us moving from laps around the DW to a few weeks on intervals on grass to the rear of DW fitness. Not only does this provide great strength and speed training it also makes it easier for us to re-group and stick together throughout the session. We continue to attract new runners each week so it is more important than ever that we re-group between efforts and help each other along.