Summary of Endurance Athletes Coaches Report to the AGM covering 2022 season
This is a summary of a short report presented by Lynn Cooper (Endurance Coach) to the February 2023 Annual General Meeting. It covers the mixed-age group led by Lynn Cooper and Kevin Daglish which caters for people who run distances from 800m to marathon (and beyond) on road, track, cross country and multi-terrain and who share a desire to get the best out of themselves as athletes and enjoyment from training as a group.
After several years of promising starts, let down by poor turnouts in later fixtures, our Senior Men finally earned promotion to Division 2 of the Start Fitness Harrier League. Led by Chris Coulson (still Under 20) who finished 3rd in the individual rankings (he was denied fastest time at Thornley Hall Farm by a Guest runner) and two impressive runs from Luke Pickering (including third fastest at Druridge Bay) before an operation ended his season, others rallied in force to ensure we had teams at all fixtures and finished second team on four occasions. Anna Pigford equalled the performance of Chris, finishing 3rd individual Under 17/Under 20 woman.
Six Houghton Harriers were selected for the Inter-Counties Cross Country in Loughborough. Cameron Allen had to withdraw having been selected for the World Student Championships in Portugal the same weekend where he was first English athlete in 11th place. At Loughborough Chris Coulson & Will Bellamy were first & second counters for the Under 20 men, Anna Pigford was first Under 20 woman for the North East in 19th place with Amy Leonard also in the team. Brandon Pye just missed out on an individual medal finishing 4th Under 17 and first for the North East.
One week later three athletes plus supporters made the long journey to Tonbridge for English Schools. Amy Leonard was ill and didn’t travel (devastated as it was her last year) but those who went did us proud, Ryan King was a team counter in the Juniors, Chris Coulson first for Durham in the Seniors and Brandon Pye won the Intermediate race – first male individual winner from Durham. Victory earned Brandon an England vest at the Schools International in Wales where he won bronze.
Track and Road
First event after the AGM last year was the Signals Relays. Best placed were Masters Men Over 50 (Steve Johnson, Shaun Kerry, Matty Tomlinson & Alan Foster) in 5th, Senior Women finished 8th and a weakened Senior Mens team finished 12th. The Good Friday Relays were cancelled after the organisers failed to find a venue.
Star of the season was undoubtedly Cam Allen, with personal bests over 800m, 1500m, mile, 3000m and 5000m. 13:42:26 ranked him 17th in the UK over 5000m but possibly his 4:03.24 for a mile in the Iffley Festival of Miles in Oxford is meaningful to more people. At the end of the summer Cam left us for Adams State University, Colorado, where he ran cross country pre-Christmas before moving to indoors.
Will Bellamy won gold over 1500m at the North East Championships in Middlesborough and made the 800m final of the England Under 20 Championships in Bedford. Eva Hardie also won gold at the North East Championships in her debut 5000m where Lee Dover won silver over 800m and Anna Pigford won bronze at 1500m. A few days later Anna ran a personal best for 3000m.
Ryan King just missed a medal, coming 4th over 3000m at the North East Championships, then went on to run a personal best over the same distance a few days later. Ryan also achieved personal bests at 1500m, mile and 5k and represented Durham in the Northern Schools Inter-Counties 1500m, having finished 2nd at Durham Schools. Henry Johnson qualified for the Senior British Championships over 800m in Manchester which came at the end of a long season of indoor and outdoor track in Michigan.
Chris Coulson ran personal bests for 800m, 3000m, 5k and 10k and won the Under 19 trophy at the Blaydon Races in June. There were personal bests for Tom Atkinson (800m, 1500m and 3000m), Shaun Kerry (5k, 10k and half marathon), Danielle Coulson (5k and 10k), Adam Middleton (1500m and mile), Freya Stockley (300m and 1500m), Ciaran Lines and Joe McGinley (800m), Carl Charlton (400m) and debuts for Kathryn Pye (1500m) and Daniel Marriner (300m and 1500m).
2023 Road and Track
In January Anna Pigford made her Half Marathon debut in the Brass Monkey where she ran an impressive 1:27:16. Anna had trained with Eva Hardie who went into the race with a personal best of 1:28:57 from 2021 which she smashed with 1:22:46. Also running were Alex Docherty and Gillian Tomlinson.
On the same day Lee Dover ran his first indoor race where he finished 10th over 3000m at the Northern Indoor Championships in Sheffield.
Last weekend Rory Graham ran a personal best of 34:55 over 10k, racing the Cross Border Challenge in the build up to his first marathon (Manchester) in April.
Cross Country 2022/23
We had early season success at the NE XC Relay Championships. Kathryn Pye (2nd fastest leg overall) gave our Under 13 girls team the lead after the first leg then we slipped to second and held on for silver medals to Kathryn, Holly Robison & Martha Taylor (running on the home soil of her parents farm).
The Senior Women went one better with Eva Hardie (2nd fastest leg), Danielle Coulson & Anna Pigford winning gold which was matched by Senior Men – Chris Coulson, Jonny Evans, Lee Dover & Luke Pickering, with Chris running fastest leg overall.
We also fielded teams in Under 15 girls, Under 17 men (Brandon Pye fastest leg), and Masters Men races and an incomplete Masters Women team.
Next standalone event was the North East Cross Country Championships in December on a frozen Temple Park.
Anna Pigford was our only medallist, winning bronze Under 20 women, with Chris Coulson (also Under 20) opting to race in the Senior Mens race to be in contention for Inter-Counties where he is too old for Under 20. Chris came 12th but didn’t count for the Senior team which finished 10th, with Luke Pickering our first counter in 24th. Kathryn Pye and Holly Robison had good runs in Under 13 girls but didn’t have a third athlete to complete a team.
We returned to Temple Park for the Sherman Cup/Davison Shield in January where ground conditions were soft and muddy with standing water in places.
Josh Dunning (Under 15 boys) had an impressive debut finishing 9th; Freya (Under 15 girls), Kathryn and Holly (Under 13 girls) all improved on their runs at the NE Championships in December, with Kathryn just outside the medals in 4th. Danielle Coulson was our sole Senior Woman (supported by 5 masters women) and we had several senior men missing but still fielded a complete team with Chris improving on his North East Championship race to finish 6th.
Witton Park, Blackburn (renowned for hills, mud and bad weather) was the venue for the Northern Cross Country Championships in January. In his first race since the Cross Country relays, after recovering from a calf tear, Brandon Pye won bronze in the Under 17 Men’s race, a confidence-booster after only two weeks of proper training. Kathryn Pye came 13th and Holly Robison 40th in a quality Under 13 Girls race, with Kathryn losing a shoe mid-race. Danielle Coulson was our sole representative in the Senior Women’s race and ran through the pain of a knee injury. With half our senior men deciding not to run, Rory Graham led home our incomplete team, backed by Lee Dover, Dave Coulson and Kevin Daglish.
Thanks to fantastic turnouts we have fielded Senior Mens teams (A and B) at all four Start Fitness Harrier League fixtures to date and are currently lying 2nd – a promotion-winning position. Numbers are down for the next fixture but we will still have a team and have to hope we do enough in the last two fixtures to progress to Division 1. In the individual rankings, Anna Pigford is lying 4th Under 17/Under 20 Women and Eva Hardie 2nd Senior Woman.
Three Vets of varying ages – Matty Tomlinson, Steve Johnson and Davie Gribben – won gold as an Over 45 team at the North East Masters Open Cross Country Championships at Croft Racing Circuit last weekend with Steve and Davie picking up individual bronze in Over 45 and Over 60. Newest member David Wallace – still representing Hartlepool Burn Road – won gold in the Over 65 category.
Much further afield – Pembrey Country Park, south west Wales – Will Bellamy & Chris Coulson were representing their respective universities in the BUCS Cross Country Championships. Will came 56th in the short race and was a counter for the St Mary’s team which finished fourth. Chris came 60th in the long race and was second counter for Newcastle.
On the same day we had five juniors running at the Schools Inter-Counties, three had qualified from Durham Schools and a further two ran as Guests. Dominic Bramley also qualified but was injured and unable to run. Kathryn Pye and Holly Robison (Junior Girls) and Brandon Pye (Senior Boy) have been selected to represent Durham at the English Schools in Nottingham in March, Freya Stockley (Inter Girl) is a reserve.
Three Houghton Harriers have been selected to represent the North East at the Inter Counties Cross Country in Loughborough in March, Eva Hardie (Senior Women), Brandon Pye (Under 17 men) and Kathryn Pye (Under 13 girl), with Chris Coulson (Senior Men) and Holly Robison (Under 13 girls) named as reserves.
My thanks to Kevin Daglish for his enthusiastic support (Kevin plans and leads Monday sessions and the occasional Saturday), to Maureen for preparing the younger athletes to move into our group and to the athletes themselves who make coaching a very rewarding experience.
