The forecasted apocalypse didn’t materialise thank heavens and after Saturdays hurricane force winds, torrential hail and rain showers it was a pleasant surprise to awake to clear skies and a slight breeze. As for me, and I know we all have our own crosses to bare, the day before I had a ‘severe’ sports massage on my calves – I could hardly walk! Anyway plantar, collapsed arches, old age, whatever it is I was just happy to be on that start line! 98 Mounts Bay Harriers had secured places in this heavily oversubscribed Cornwall Grand Prix Series race 2, and huge thanks goes to all the harriers who paid club membership, England Athletics Licence fees and race entry fee to ensure we abided by the rules of no non affiliated runners in the race – it was a bit harem scarem when Hayle came back with our entry reduced by 15 places! but I’m happy to say that all those members who wanted places eventually managed to race due to withdrawals through injuries or other reasons (over 40 changes in the end) In total 531 runners lined up on the narrow-laned start line ready for that manic first mile, where we all think ‘wow, first mile in #.## now keep that going and a definite PB, but we all know we can never keep that pace! Credit where credit is due, well done to Hayle for trying to seed everyone on the start line, it certainly seemed to stop the sea of friendly club runners, holding hands in a long line strung out across the road blocking faster runners progress. Roads were wet and muddy and many comments could be heard from certain ladies (and some men) about how dirty their trainers were becoming! Having a perspective from the first 5th of the race and not the front of the pack, there seemed to be a fair headwind in places and I noticed a few of our more astute athletes used the runner(s) in front as a wind break – great tactics, so some of you do listen! It was great to see lots of familiar MBH faces out on the course shouting encouragement as we passed – am I the only one who really tries to look better than I actually feel when I see friends / family? I think not! That final hill never gets any easier and all I could say in FGtH (Frankie says style, and this was out loud! I must have sounded a right pillock) was ‘relax, relax, relax’ Crossing the finish line I also looked a sight (thanks to young Ben who pointed out that it looked like a dozen slugs had crawled across my chin, I wiped myself off – still better than last year’s carrot soup showing!) I congratulated the others I could see – Pete LeGrice winning by a good margin – for those who don’t know Pete has ‘left us’ for Bristol & West – he will still pull on his MBH shirt for Cornwall Races as he will now be 2nd claim, so that will still pee off a few local runners! On finishing I thought I’d just trot back to ‘encourage’ (read shout at) other runners finishing as I knew they’d love to see me! It was then that I heard the unsettling news that one of our runners had been trampled by a horse near the start – I later found out it was poor Helen Squire, who was involved in the incident. I feel it unwise for me to go into details at this moment as investigations are still in progress – suffice to say, Helen, although badly bruised, shaken and in shock, ripped clothing (that was new) and to rub it in not only was trampled on but also lay in dog shite! Poor Helen – I’m sure everyone sends their best wishes to Helen for a speedy recovery. It was fantastic to see all those ‘newbies’ coming into that finish line a well deserved PB (Paul Hooper will be busy) and hoodie (OK so it was green, had to happen one year) Rumour is that Marazion 10K next year won’t have hoodies!!! WHAT!! I will be writing to Craig / Hayle Runners – ‘thou dost protest!’ So……..fantastic effort by all, but as with most things there will always be winners! This was probably the most successful set of results we have ever seen at Mounts Bay Harriers, which only points to we are still evolving and getting something right, our fantastic coaches and leaders are doing a fantastic job and you, our athletes, are a force to be reckoned with. If this has whet your appetite for another – challenge yourselves guys to the next GP race – Falmouth Half Marathon Sunday 16 March (enter on line) ‘An Res’ the multi terrain 10 miler on Sunday 30 March (club entry at Club) Marazion 10K Podium Positions Men Peter Le Grice – 1st overall and 1st under 35 Neil Eddy – 3rd under 35 Ben Hicks – 1st male under 20 Mark Omori – 3rd male 50-54 Peter Uren – 2nd male 65-69 Phil Sanger – 2nd male 35-39 Men’s team 3rd (just 4 points behind Hayle!) Pete, Neil, Ben H, Gary, Phil & Ben May. – bottle of wine for you if you haven’t had it already Ladies Alice Mary Nicholas 3rd female U35 Karen McClay 1st female 45-49 Anne Waller 2nd female 40-44 Penny Uren 3rd female 65 – 69 Ladies team 2nd!! Alice, Anne, Karen, Rachel T, Jane & Katrina – bottle of wine for you if you haven’t had it already POS TIME NAME 1 0:32:41 LE GRICE, Peter 5 0:35:03 EDDY, Neil 14 0:36:41 HICKS, Ben 19 0:37:21 RICHARDS, Gary 27 0:38:09 SANGER, Phil 32 0:38:23 MAY, Ben 42 0:38:56 HICKSON, Andrew 53 0:39:49 OMORI, Mark 59 0:40:24 KEAREY, Kyle 62 0:40:47 NICHOLAS, Alice 63 0:40:56 MILES, Peter 72 0:41:27 WALLER, Connor 74 0:41:28 JAMES, Ian 83 0:41:44 RUSSELL, Mark 84 0:41:52 WALLER, Anne 96 0:42:38 MATTHEWS, Ian 101 0:43:03 HOADLEY, Ben 106 0:43:28 MCCLAY, Karen 115 0:44:06 TRESIDDER, Rachel 121 0:44:26 WOOD, Jacob 122 0:44:29 POST, Martin 123 0:44:30 THOMSON, Stuart 124 0:44:31 UREN, Peter 127 0:44:45 MANNING, Jane 128 0:44:46 SMITH, Nick 142 0:45:25 JOHANSEN, Miles 143 0:45:28 OLIVER, Adam 165 0:47:04 ANGOVE, Paul 168 0:47:30 RANDALL, Gavin 171 0:47:42 MCNEVIN, Philip 180 0:48:07 TONKIN, Katrina 183 0:48:18 JONES, Nick 191 0:48:30 JONES, Simon MB 213 0:49:26 STOCKMAN, Keith 214 0:49:31 TURTLE, John 218 0:49:45 HIBBERT, Clive 220 0:49:51 TILDESLEY, Daniel 221 0:49:55 WEBB, Helen 226 0:50:02 HOOPER, Paul 231 0:50:19 KEWN, Jeremy 236 0:50:37 BURROWS, Robert 245 0:51:07 ROTHSCHILD, Holly 246 0:51:07 HOSKING, Sasha 250 0:51:14 HOWIS, Steve 266 0:52:00 WISEMAN, Emma 272 0:52:30 HIGGS, Martin 274 0:52:40 LEWIS, Bridget 285 0:53:05 DYMOND, Rob 296 0:53:35 KANE, Duncan 297 0:53:39 KEWN, Nicola 298 0:53:42 NICHOLAS, Stacey 303 0:54:04 TREGEAR, Sarah 309 0:54:32 COLLINSON, Michelle 312 0:54:41 BUNCE, Richard 318 0:54:57 DOBSON, Helen 320 0:55:03 WATKINS, Yvonne 323 0:55:09 CHAPPELL, Lynsey 326 0:55:19 BACKHOUSE, Eden 349 0:56:37 RIDGE, Marie 350 0:56:40 KNOWLES, Cat 355 0:56:59 LAY, Eve 357 0:57:08 RIGGS, Paul 372 0:58:09 JAMES, Joyce 375 0:58:18 DAVIES, Pippa 383 0:58:40 PULLEN, Tim 386 0:58:42 PRADY, Liz 387 0:58:47 THOMSON, Rachel 393 0:59:25 TREWHELLA, Chris 396 0:59:40 UREN, Penny 400 1:00:18 RULE, Roger 402 1:00:29 JAMES, Sue 403 1:00:29 TILDESEY, Amy 405 1:00:35 STONE, Jackie 414 1:01:00 MATTHEWS, Susan 417 1:01:03 PROSSER, Amanda 419 1:01:10 JOHNS, Sue 424 1:01:53 DYMOND, Steph 425 1:01:53 RICHARDS, Anita 432 1:02:37 BACKHOUSE, Claire 436 1:02:49 FANELLI, Kerry 456 1:04:19 RICHARDSON, Nicola 457 1:04:19 BYRNE, Carly 458 1:04:19 JONES, Emma 465 1:05:12 EVANS, Cinnamon 467 1:05:14 JAMES, Amanda 481 1:08:31 CARBRY, Sarah 485 1:09:05 HARVEY, Dan 486 1:09:05 LUGG, Dan 487 1:09:06 LAWRY, Jen 488 1:09:41 DREW, Talwyn 491 1:11:05 SHROSBEE, Bridget 493 1:12:13 KENT, Charlotte 498 1:13:59 POYNTER, Clare 519 1:19:58 ROGERS, Verity 523 1:22:32 SHARP, Katherine 526 1:26:46 SHARP, Claire
Mud, water, steep descents and tough climbs all in the dark, were the order of the day for the Wild Night Run over Dartmoor at the weekend. With head torches to light the way, and flashing marker poles to show the route, 150+ runners set off from South Brent to take on some pretty challenging terrain.