Beverley Athletics Club: 18th January 2023

New Year’s resolutions to find some running challenges to kick off 2023 have certainly been kept! January has been a very busy if not muddy month as runners have found some great events to kick-start the year!

January saw the 4th race of the East Yorkshire Cross Country League at Sledmere, with Rob Sparkes leading the men’s team home and Jenny Rowe leading the ladies. Beverley’s men finished 1st with the ladies’ team finishing 4th. Overall, in the League after the 4th race, both men and ladies teams remain in 2nd place.

Beverley co-hosts the next race takes place on 12th February 2023 on Beverley Westwood. A recce of the route took place in January, with 50 runners meeting to test the route, enjoying a lovely sunny albeit muddy social run.

Rob Sparkes took part in his first fell race, the Stanbury Splash, at Penistone Hill Country Park finishing in 3rd place, taking home his well-deserved prize of Soreen, chocolate and beer.

Filey Flyer, a popular event hosted by the LDWA (Long Distance Walkers Association) was the choice of 4 of our members. Taking on the short route were Carol Cook – 4:32:00; Alison Benson – 5:30:00 and Frank Harrison – 5:57:00, whilst Linda Wright completed the long route in 4:39:00 as part of her training for her Chester Ultra in March.

The Daleside Auld Lang Syne fell race, 6.7 miles and 1000 foot of elevation in soggy conditions, saw Simon Pick complete in 1:07:25. The Hardmoors 15, 16 miles and 1500 feet of elevation, saw Tom Skinner 5th to finish in 2:22:25 whilst Peter Watkinson completed the Hardmoors 30, 33 miles and 3140 feet of elevation in 09:26:16.

Some runners were successful in gaining a coveted race number for the Brass Monkey half marathon in York, where James Durham was first Beverley club runner home in 1:32:48, followed by Alan Flint – 1:41:54, Bruce Woodford – 1:50:52 and Fran Ibson – 2:05:05.

Meanwhile, the Juniors had a busy start to the year at the Humberside XC champs at Weelsby Woods, Grimsby where they collected 19 individual and team medals between them. Starting with U11 girls, Addien raced her first xc race as the youngest in her age group and had a great race. The U11 boys, Freddie, Seb, Xavier and Zac, were first team while the U13 girls race gave us our county XC champion, Lois Pottage. Indie also had a good run to take 3rd place, and she was joined by Poppy and Orlaith. They also won the U13 girls team prize. We had 7 runners in the U15 girls’ race, and between them, they took first and third-team prizes. Well done for some very strong running to Millie, Roxie, Ella, Meisha, Milla, Ameerah and Harriet. And last but not least, our U15 boys were first team too. Caleb ran really well to get 3rd place overall, joined by Jacob, Louis and Joe. Lewis Holloway, the Club’s Juniors Head Coach commented “The Juniors have worked really hard over the autumn and winter at their XC, including building up through the very tough West Yorkshire XC league. Their hard work paid off today and the coaching team is very proud of them all.”

The Club started its’ popular Couch to 5k programme at the end of January. This popular running programme takes people from being non-runners to completing their first 5kms event in a few months of training and will culminate in a graduation run at Beverley Westwood parkrun on Saturday 6th or 13th May 2023.

And finally, some more important dates for your diaries. Beverley’s iconic 10kms race takes place Sunday 14th May 2023 and details of the event and registration will be circulated in the New Year, whilst Walkington 10 km will take place on Friday 14th July 2023.

New members, whatever your age and fitness level, are always welcome and further details about the membership and what the Club has to offer to its members can be found on the Club’s website: www.beverleyathleticclub.co.uk.