Our victorious men's team with their prizes, L - R: Mike Musgrove, Dave Stone, Adam Miller, Jamie Palmer, Hugh Marsden, Jamie PearsonIt was a very busy weekend for the Harriers with 24 of them (that's 1/4 of the club's overall membership, to put it in perspective!) heading up to Somerset to take part in the Parrett Trail relays. Armed with a minibus and their own personal chauffeur - massive thanks must go to Paul Champion here - they between them ran the length of the River Parret, from its mouth at Bridgwater, Somerset, to the source at Wynyard's Gap, Dorset. Terry Oldham gives the following report:
'The Parrett Trail Relay event, (53 miles along the trail from the sea at Bridgwater to Wynyards Gap in Dorset, split into 6 legs organised by Crewekerne RC since 2003), has been a ‘happy hunting ground’ for the Harriers over the years, with all three prizes having been at some point scooped up by the club; i.e. the Mens, Ladies, and Mixed teams. Last year was another successful year, with the Mens and Ladies teams coming away with first place in their respective categories. Was it going to be another year of success?
Not entirely. The major success was the Mens team once again, with a superb example of competitive running from all six members of the team. This event is very much a favourite of Hugh Marsden and he not only galvanised the club over the last 3 months to enter and recce the various legs, he lead by example with a first place on the first leg. Jaime Palmer repeated that on Leg 2 with a blistering finish on this short but sharp leg, and a not unexpected result given he has the course record for this leg.
Next off on Leg 3 was Mike Musgrove, and a tough challenge for him, given that he had one of the fastest runners in the event to keep at bay, and although coming in second to him, he kept the all important time difference to an absolute minimum. Leg 4 was a chance for Adam Miller to show his mettle, and he duly did, for although he also came in second this was just a few seconds behind first place. The clock was in our favour and just two legs to go.
Well, if you need to make it a sure thing who better to have running the last two legs, but Dave Stone, in fantastic form at the moment, and the newly returned Jamie Pearson, who has the course record for Leg 6. Any doubts? Well, if there were doubts, they were quickly dispelled as Dave left the pack ‘eating dust’ on the first meadow from the start and not to be seen again until the finish, given that he did so some 4 minutes ahead of the second placed runner. This was a 2 minute improvement on last year’s time. Can he get any better?
So with the clock very much in our favour, what happened on Leg 6? Jamie knocked out a 60 minute Leg is what happened and came in a comfortable first place. He may not have looked comfortable when he finished, having to ascend a very long hill to the finish, but it provided the seal on the event for the Mens team. Not quite his course record of 57 minutes but more than enough to put the team back into possession of the rudest trophy on the running circuit, and a bottle of wine each as well.
Next team to finish for the Harriers was the Mixed Team. A tactical change with emphasis on this category rather than on the Ladies team was hoped would bring further success. Unfortunately, there was stronger competition in this category than expected. Having said that there was not much to choose between the first three teams, however, and just 5 minutes between them after 53 miles of running is an achievable target for next year.
The Mens B team came in a creditable 10th place overall. There were no prizes for this team, but there was plenty of rivalry going on within the club, and Leg 4 made an interesting competition between Scott Jordan of the Mixed team and Dave Backway of the Mens B team. Despite a lot of beer riding on the result, Dave decided to stop to speak to Hughie and Scott shot past to take the spoils with just 13 seconds to spare. The Drogo 10 should be an interesting race!
The Ladies team were third in their category, and given it was touch and go as to whether we could find 6 ladies willing to take part, this was a worthy result. Sue Wilkins, in particular, should be mentioned for the courage and commitment she showed to take on Leg 3, given the long and very painful recovery she has had from her shattering (in both senses of the word) ankle injury some 2 years ago.
That’s the report on the event, but it should also be noted that this is a ‘cracking day out Grommet’. The club provided a mini bus and Paul Champion drove it manfully around the narrow lanes of the Somerset levels to get runners to and from the end and beginning of the Legs. The camaraderie was self evident and the support for the runners as they arrived and or left to start their Legs was fantastic. I did not notice another club with the same sense of fun or fervour. Let’s keep it that way.
Finally, a big thank you from the club to Hugh Marsden, (and Dawn Teed), for getting us all there on our respective start lines and for making sure that the Harriers were ‘on tour’ successfully once again.'
Terry Oldham.
In the build-up to the race, Mike Musgrove had been scouting out the competition and had deemed the Running Forever contingent, from Taunton, to pose the biggest threat. Mike adds:
'Once again we were blessed with wonderfull weather, although it did get quite warm as the day went on. From the men's team point of view, we knew the main opposition was the Running Forever team. I am good friends with their team captain, so after much friendly banter and the gaining of some insider info on their runners, we knew we were going to have to go out hard again this year as they shipped in a couple of very good runners. However, they were not quite up to the task as we all ran strongly beating them by 7 mins and beating the record by 11 mins.
The mixed team came in a close third although Scott Jordan and Dave Backway did have a few problems crossing a part of the river which involved losing a shoe(!) but they had a great race coming 15 seconds apart with Scott taking the honours this time.
The mens B team came in 10th with some very strong running also.
The ladies team came in third in their category.'
M. Musgrove
Well done to all the runners and their support crews. Terry tells me that the club has a real "buzz" about it at the moment so let's keep this up!!
Results and individual split times can be viewed on the Crewkerne website, here:
http://parrettrace.btck.co.uk/
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