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17^th Team Pursuits - January 29 (Harriers army invades Crymych!)

The Harriers entered 8 teams - a record number for the club and with a total of 30 teams from all over West Wales, this was the biggest field ever for the event.

With the men's A team being the strongest we have put out for a long time, the pre-event talk was about whether they could challenge the favourites Sarn Helen and win for the first time in the club's history.

On arrival at Crymych, the talk soon changed to the weather as the Arctic conditions that usually grace this event – in the past there has been snow, icy roads and hailstorms - came in the shape of freezing rain and a wind chill that would probably make penguins feel at home! The wise runners had brought plenty of layers (and hats , gloves, scarves ,survival kit etc ) . The not so wise were wishing they had.

The leisure centre soon became a sea of yellow and blue vests as the pre race team photos were taken and teams were sorted out.

As usual the less serious teams picked some wacky names for themselves - Headbangers, Medically Unfit and Wet and Wild (topical) to name a few. The Harriers even had an international flavour with a German and South African taking part, not to mention an alien (Gareth).

The icy rain and freezing wind meant that as the race went on there was serious danger of hypothermia! - the thought did cross my mind as my legs felt like blocks of ice (or was it the lactic ) although some hardy ones ran with just a vest and shorts (seemed to be mainly Sarn Helen runners - perhaps they thought there was a prize for the least clothed team)

As each runner finished there was none of the usual hanging around waiting for other runners to come in  -the warm down consisted of a quick dash back to the changing rooms to thaw out and have a shower before the hot water ran out.

Oh –and the Results:

The mens A team of Rob Dyde, Tim Griffiths , Andy Dawe, Rob Daines and Gareth Elliott came a very creditable 2^nd to Sarn Helen A who have now won the event for 6 consecutive years.

In the ladies' race, our  A team of Kat Steed, Ana O`Neill, Sarah Young, Hannah Austin and Della Griffiths also did well to come runners up to a strong TROTS ladies team.

Well done to all the Harriers who took part. Hope you`ve all thawed out by now.

Paul Edwards

Harriers results to follow

Full results can be seen at http://www.onlineracereults.org.uk

Also this weekend was the Lliswerry 8 in Newport, where the whole of West Wales was represented by Dave Phillips:

LW