White Rose 30 2017 & the Prizegiving/AGM (updated 11 Nov)

The race

38232654516_baf61d8550_z

The weather was dry, and the race was fast.  It was hilly, but with a fair bit of tarmac, and much of the rest on good tracks, it was very runnable.  I spent the morning sorting out the Jedburgh results, & didn’t get to Marsden until the first few runners had already finished.  Remember we were giving Runfurther points for runners in the 60-mile and 100-mile races as well, using the 30-mile times from their trackers.  First home was Rory Harris in 3:56:42, with Lee Kemp just behind in 3:58:15.  Third runner to get back to Marsden was Cees van der Land, in 4:05:08, but he went straight back out for another lap, eventually winning the 60-mile race.  The head to head between Ken Sutor and Kevin Hoult was settled when Ken finished next in 4:07:53.  Kevin had entered the 100-mile race: he finished the first lap in 4:14:00, but retired at that point.

38232651456_d0f9bc84ee_z

First woman was Kim Kennedy in 5:03:28, 2nd was Helen Morley, only 2o seconds behind. Helen Pickford was next through in 5:11:30, on her way to 3rd place overall in the 60-mile race.  Lesley Murphy was next in 5:17:53.  Karen Nash finished in considerable pain exactly a minute after Lesley, & clearly needs to get her foot sorted out!

38287472281_6893bbaa1f_z

Karen has written her race up, and you can find that on her blog here. Nick’s photos are on Flickr here, & I’ve pinched some of the for this post.  You can find the full race results on the White Rose website here.

38232639886_db801b407a_z

The final 2017 Runfurther results

The full Runfurther leaderboard has been updated and is here.  As long as I’ve made no mistakes, that should be the final version for 2017.  This year’s winners are:

Men

  1.  Ken Sutor, Cheshire Hash House Harriers.  Well done to Ken.  He beat Kevin Hoult in all 3 of their Runfurther head-to-heads this year, so is a worthy winner.
  2.  Kevin Hoult, Calder Valley FR.  Last year’s winner, but not quite fast enough to repeat that this year.
  3.  Rory Harris.  Rory’s definitely one to watch for 2018.  All 3 runners were way ahead of the rest of the field this year, but quite close together.  Rory could have taken the title had he run another Long race & replaced his Fellsman points with a higher score.
  4. David Chetta, Mercia FR.
  5. Adam Worrallo, Bingley Harriers.  David & Adam were only separated by 5 points.

Women

  1. Karen Nash, again.  A running machine, and it’s about time she got some more competition!
  2. Debbie Cooper, Lytham St Annes Road Runners.  Settled by her run at Jedburgh.
  3. Sarah Smith, Valley Striders AC.
  4. Janet Hill, Springfield Striders.
  5. Charlotte Smith.

Men over 50

This year we’ve changed the age category rules, so, for example, over 60s aren’t eligible for this category

  1. Martin Terry, Clayton-le-Moors Harriers.  Looks like this one’s Martin’s until he’s 60, at this rate!
  2. Nick Ham (of whom more later)
  3. Kevin Smith.  Kevin was only 2 points behind Nick.

Women over 50

  1. Karen Nash.

Men over 60

  1. Chris Davies, Saddleworth Runners.
  2. Alwyn Nixon.

Women over 60

  1. Janet Hill.

Men over 70

  1. Bob Nash.
  2. Dick Scroop, Mercia FR

Most points

Men: Nick Ham, 7627 points

Women: Karen Nash, 7464 points

Grand Slam of all 12 races

24416602768_a51e3709e4_z

Nick Ham & Bob Nash

Bob Nash, the first over 70 to achieve this – an amazing result.

Nick Ham, & not for the first time.  Congratulations to both of them.

Team competition

  1. Calder Valley Fell Runners, 8836 points: Kevin Hoult, Ian Symington, Martin Huddleston
  2. Team Krypton, 8319 points: Karen Nash, Nick Ham, Linda Murgatroyd
  3. Mercia Fell Runners, 8186 points: David Chetta, Stewart Bellamy, Dick Scroop

Prizegiving and AGM

Karen Nash & Ken Sutor

Karen Nash & Ken Sutor

Well I’m not going to give a blow-by-blow account of the AGM, which was brief as usual.  The main item was my standing down as Assistant Secretary, and Kevin Smith volunteering to join the committee in my place.  I’ll continue to run the website & turn race results into Runfurther points though – who else is daft enough to do it?  Anyway, the AGM minutes are here.

Karen Nash & Martin Terry

Karen Nash & Martin Terry

As for the presentations, I’ve already listed who won what above, so here are a few of Nick photos of the presentations.  The rest are on his Flickr site here.

Karen Nash and Janet Hill

Karen Nash and Janet Hill

And we all had a rollicking good time, and danced into the night.  The excitement was overwhelming (see below)…

The presentations at fever pitch

The presentations at fever pitch

Lastly, many thanks to Karen for holding everything together so well this year, and to Si Berry and Lee Kemp for turning up in Marsden with gifts for all from Ultimate Direction and Injinji.  We just need Lee to run a few more Runfurther races next year now, to give Ken, Kevin & Rory more to aim at!