Harriers at Northern 6 stage / 4 Stage Relays - Blackpool
22nd September 2015 AUTHOR: dwhite CATEGORIES: Event Report

Blackpool Rocks

Northern 6/4 Stage Relays – Blackpool

Who needs blow up dolls and fancy dress to have fun. All you need is a coach load of enthusiastic Harriers heading to Blackpool for the Northern Relays 6 stage men, 4 stage ladies. It’s a credit to the club that we managed to get 3 men’s teams and 4 ladies filling our full quota of runners we could enter and making us the envy of many local clubs.

The relays was set in the scenic Stanley Park, including the obligatory lake plus a gorgeous art deco cafe. Not the cheapest but I can highly recommend the chocolate cake.

Stanley Park , Blackpool
Stanley Park , Blackpool – photo courtesy of Phil McCoy
Beverley Jackson, Northern 4 Stage Relays - Blackpool
Beverley Jackson, Northern 4 Stage Relays – Blackpool

There was two loops with the men doing approx. 6k and the ladies  5k. The men had to complete 6 legs (loops) and the ladies 4.  The route took in the park including the lake, some roads circling the park and a wooded area. This area was probably the only complaint of the day as if you was running on your own there was the potential to get lost. Overall though I think the consensus was it was a good loop with enough variations in scenery to keep you on your toes. The stand out for me (and I assume many others) was the track finish, there is nothing like the site of the finish line and 20+ harriers screaming at you to get the adrenaline going and finish with a flourish.

On a fine afternoon there was many fine performances with Beverley Jackson fastest of the ladies in 20:51, Alec Gibson continued his impressive performances completing the course in 21:28 and fastest of the men.

Total Times For Each Team

Womens:

  • 40 East Hull Harriers & AC ‘A’ 1:32:51
  • 52 East Hull Harriers & AC ‘B’ 1:40:24
  • 55 East Hull Harriers & AC ‘C’ 1:44:21
  • 60 East Hull Harriers & AC ‘D’ 1:54:10

Men:

  • 45 East Hull Harriers & AC ‘A’ 2:20:11
  • 78 East Hull Harriers & AC ‘B’ 2:36:37
  • 96 East Hull Harriers & AC ‘C’ 2:47:57

Full results can be found at the following links:

A special thanks to Pete Dearing for time keeping  and James Braithwaite for the great photographs. A link to the full gallery plus a couple of other galleries can be found on FaceBook at the following links:

Submit a comment