Thirsk and Sowerby Harriers.

– With the weather as it has been, conditions for the Commondale Clart were even more clarty than usual, although the day was a dry one.

Cameron Choules, in a fine vein of form just now, finished 24th in 45.30 with Lorraine Hiles, ever competitive, 61st, and 2nd F45, in 51.35, closely followed by David Read, 63rd in 51.46, Hywel Smith 70th, and 2nd M60, in 53.20, Hilary Coventry 81st in 55.27, Faith Coy 107th in 70.39, Alan Wikeley 108th in 70.47 and Claire Gillan 109th in 71.16.

On the same day, Peter Hunt, Carol Morrison, Pat Kirby and Fran Jeffery were involved in the Hardmoors Osmotherley Trail Races, with Peter running the marathon and the others, the half marathon. There was ice around in places, especially on the tarmac sections, which made for interesting slips and slides at times, but once on tracks, the going was quite good. The route took in Oakdale Reservoir, moorland, the Cod Beck Reservoir and Sheepwash, and the Cleveland Way, through plenty of trees before the big climb which is Live Moor Plantation – though the descent is actually more tricky than the climb. The climb up on to Scarth Nick Moor is deceptively long and energy sapping, with mud on top of Beacon Hill, and the finish at Osmotherley was a very welcome sight for runners. There were 400 competitors involved in total in all the races.

Last weekend, on a fine but windy morning, three Harriers took part in the Snake Lane 10 at Pocklington, and altogether flatter affair – though not completely flat – on roads. The popular, friendly and well organised race attracted 806 runners, and a following wind during the first part of the race foretold a strong headwind in parts of the return.

Alan Harman came 521st in 1.26.24, Ian Codling 783rd in 1.52.40 and Marian Codling 804th in 2.07.28. A beautiful turned mug was the reward at the end for runners.

  • Have you got your entry in for the Thirsk 10 on March 23, or the wheelchair race, or the fun run? Details on the club website.

Bedale and Aiskew Runners.

– The inaugural Catterick 10k saw 219 runners take part in an event organised to raise funds for Help for Heroes charity. On a challenging course, Neil McNish ran well to finish 24th in a time of 41:12.

The Snake Lane ten-mile road race at Pocklington proved as popular as ever with all the entries being snapped up within 36 hours.

Very strong winds made it tough going for all the 806 runners and finishing times were noticeably slower than previous years. Pete Richardson was the sole Bedale and Aiskew representative at this year’s event, finishing 440th in 1:12:48.

Three Bedale members have recorded new 5k personal bests at the region’s popular parkruns. Chris Appleton and Charlotte Mullard are both in training for the London Marathon and used the Darlington parkrun as part of their preparation.

Chris recorded a new best time of 24:05, while Charlotte improved her time by 48 seconds to finish in 28:15. At the Tees Barrage, in Stockton, Frank Webster cut his best time to 27:04.