67 Harriers ran in the Cranfield 5k, the largest turnout by the club for a race so far this year. Cranfield is a fast course and a number of Harriers achieved good times and ran pb's. Cranfield is also the club's 5k championship race.
The first Harrier to finish and the 1st MV40 overall on the night was Kevin Willett in 17:03. Kevin has now won the club's 5k championship at Cranfield in four of the last five years. The second Harrier to finish was Tony Dadd in 17:13. Tony's run was a pb by seven secs. The third Harrier to cross the line was Alistair Fadden in 18:21.
The first lady Harrier to finish was Emily Woodfield in 20:47. It was the first time Emily had run at Cranfield. The second lady Harrier was Viv Kilgour in 21:37 followed by Jenny Lovesey in 21:45.
The Harriers vets performed particularly well with Chris Proud, who is producing some excellent runs at present, being the 1st MV55 to finish in 18:59. Chris won the M55 by 7 sec from Tony Simmons of Luton, who in the 1976 Montreal Olympics took 4th place behind bronze medallist Brendon Foster in the 10k. [Chris was also just seven seconds short of Martin Leach's club best].
Also running well were Martin Leach whose 19:17 was a new MV60 club best time and Bill Billington, who clipped 4 secs off the Club MV65 best! Bill was the 1st MV65 at Cranfield, but as Cranfield does doesn't present prizes for age categories over 55+, Bill left empty handed as did Martin who would have won the MV60 prize.
Among the Harriers who got new pb's (and that we know about) were Graham Short (19:24), David Herincx (20:22), Donna McEwen (22:10) and Lynn Short (32:27). Quite a few Harriers also improved their times over Cranfield 2003 including Tony Barnes (18:46), Andrew Moore (18:52), Paul Roberts (18:59), Mike Barnard (19:36), Derek Morrison (20:14), Alex Rothwell (21:30), Bill Billington (22:16), Larry Corkery (24:32) and Paula Hollowell (30:14).
Well done also to those Harriers who ran their first race for the club. Included here are Adam Hills (19:48), Steven Wallace (22:20), Paul Rayner (25:23), Kevin McCulley (27:50), Debbie Gilbert (29:13), Maria McBeth (30:49), Sarah Thurman (31:22) and Sarah Maddison (31:49).