Saturday 28th March - Orienteering in Macc Forest

The Team (minus Kate)

Today a small but hardy group of E & D runners went along to the first of the 'Spring Series' Orienteering events organised by MDOC. The weather was 'mixed' and the terrain rather more challenging than Lyme Park (beware brambles). 4 people did the 'Orange' course and two did the 'Light Green' course.

It was really good to see runners of all ages doing the event which was reall well attended.

Post-event debrief involved tea and cake at the Garden Centre.

Neil

Neil's route

Jane - currently in the lead as an F40

How many shoes does a runner need....

Sunday 22nd March - Wilmslow Half Marathon

Today is the annual Wilmslow Half Marathon - a very fast course with a large number of runners (approx 5,000). The club usually has a good number of members in this event and we also provide marshals at mile 7 (we get a good donation from Wilmslow Running Club for this).

So - if you want to run this please enter early as it fills up. If you can help as a marshal please let me know.

Neil

Saturday 21st March - Bridges Ridges and Canals

For those unable to attend either the Fell Taster Session or Bramhall ParkRun, the trusty Bridges Ridges and Canals route was ran from the Bollin Valley Car Park, by 5 of the D Group runners.

On a chilly but bright morning, we set off up Manchester road to join the Middlewood Way and sped along to our Bridges across the Silk Road and over the canal. The team kept together well and all worked really hard to get up "Neils Hill" at the Kerridge cenotaph.

After a short "circle" at the top of the hill for those who got there fastest, we regrouped and continued up up up, to Windmill road for some well earned views and downhill fun.

At Hursdfield Kathryn headed home - having already ran over a mile and a half to join us at the start, so the four remaining runners made our way along the canal,  back to the stone bridge for a quick pic pause and then headed back to the car park.

Some really impressive running by the team, everyone really worked hard, ran a longer route ( a first for one member), stuck together and most importantly made it back with happy faces.

Really great work and a great run well done!

Mel

The Start

Jazz Hands

Nailing "Neils Hill"

A bridge breather with added collie

Made it to the end

Saturday 21st March - Fell Running 'taster' session

The start

A good turnout for the fell taster today (14 people plus lots of helpers). The session was a mixture of 'classroom', cake and a 4.5 mile run with mixed terrain. The weather was tremendous!

There will be another event later in the year and also a 'navigation day' at some point.

A few pictures below and lots more on the FLICKR album - CLICK HERE

Neil

Saturday 21st March - Bramhall ParkRun

By popular demand this week the group run will be at the Bramhall ParkRun (this means we can spread our ParkRun custom around!).

More information about the Bramhall ParkRun can be found on their website - CLICK HERE

Remember....
- Bramhall is a busy ParkRun (arrive early to park)
- the run starts at 9.00am prompt
- Bramhall is two laps and there are hills
- Remember your Barcode

We will arrange car sharing nearer the time.

Neil

Friday 20th March - Club AGM & Social Eveing

Venue

Hi all, a while off yet, but the club AGM and awards evening...  ... will take place at 7pm on Friday 20th March, at the Bollington Arts Centre (the same venue as last year). All club members are welcome - the juniors can bring parents and vice versa - and it's all free !
Format will be as last year, we'll start with the AGM (a bit boring but quite short), followed by some (well, quite a lot) of food and drink (there will be a bar).
That will be followed by the presentation of awards. It's a fine night out, and a good chance to meet and celebrate with your club colleagues without having to run somewhere first.
Some of the awards, listed below, are 'special awards' and require YOU LOT to provide nominations. We've set date of Friday the 20th Feb to receive these. This will give us time to get the trophies to and from the engravers in time for the AGM. Please get your nominations to Bob Lynch - paper or email - by the above date. And also - if you have a perpetual trophy from last year, please get that to Bob by the same date as well, thanks !

• Best Newcomer
• Most Improved
• Most promising
• Commendation female
• Commendation male
• Best XC performance
• Female endurance
• Male endurance
• Notable individual performance
• Contribution to the club
• Team of the year
• Athlete of the year - decided by Pauline and Bob Lynch

To give you a bit of a steer, the winners from last year are listed here.

http://www.macclesfield-harriers.co.uk/index.php/component/content/article/34-general/1157-award-winners-2013-season

Saturday 14th March - Canal & Countryside inc. pig viewing!

A great run this morning in perfect conditions. No wind and dry...it doesn't get much better in Macc!

We started off running south along the canal to Windmill Street then came up on to the road for a steep climb which seemed to go on forever (nobody said that, but I could tell what you were thinking)!

Then up again on a track and back on to the Buxton Rd. Then, the highlight of the run....THE PIGS! We sniffed them out, eventually, and were rewarded with their friendly little faces snuffling at us! It made Mel's day!

Lots of brilliant effort on the hills - which as we know, are our friends! There was lots of looping and encouraging each other. Just think of the stamina building effort we put in today. Great running D team.

Thanks for getting our Saturday off to a great start!

Ali & Mel

A colourful bunch

The start

Carol looking good

Welcome Claire, Margaret's sister

Chris leading the way

Ali & Sarah

Look at the evil one on the right!!

PIGS!!

What awaits us through the bridge?

Those ladies keep on running...

A brief rest before the HILL!

Can we put it off any longer?

HILL! Part 2

And finally back to the start - all still smiling!

Saturday 7th March - Sutton Langley and a hill

The Start

A very good turnout of 10 runners today - the conditions were very spring-like (although it was a bit breezy when we got higher up).  The route today was from the Garden Centre via Gurnett, Jarman, Langley, Cock Hall Lane and back via Sutton and Parvey Lane.

Yes, there were hills (in fact one long and steep one) and I was very pleased to see how hard people worked to get to the top - nice views welcomed us during a 'breather-break'.

Post run de-brief (with cake) was in the Garden Centre.

Neil, Alison and Mel

Jazz-hands on a hill..

What is it about jazz-hands?

Almost at the top - hard work but worth it for the views.

Group picture during a breather break

Version 2

I wonder what the discussion topic was!

Georgina with Philip and John

Whizzing down the hill..

One extra loop of Parvey Lane

The End