EHH - Hornsea Beach Run

by Jane Hounsome

The weather was beautiful as 42 runners lined up on the beach with the largest turnout of Hornsea Harriers I can remember with seven men, one junior and one lady !

I was initially swept up with the crowd as runners leapt, vaulted, climbed, balanced, face-planted, swore and generally found ways of overcoming the breakwaters ranging from the very agile and graceful to undignified and wet...having done this race a couple of times before, I went for discretion and moved up the beach to take advantage of several perfectly acceptable steps.

However, this meant the vast majority of runners heading towards Mappleton were now becoming small dots on the horizon, and very soon as I bumbled along the lovely wet sand the juniors (who ran 1.5 miles out) passed me on their return including our own Fraser Pratt who was flying and finished third.

Soon after came the early pack of seniors including Chris who despite struggling with injury looked like he was on a mission and placed fifth ...with cool stealth Pete was not far behind him looking perfectly comfortable in the now pretty strong headwind, and who eventually finished second, followed closely by Dan and Matthew.

After a slow run up the ramp at Mappleton came the return trip for me which involved another detour up the beach this time climbing UP the breakwaters, the finish line just didn't come soon enough, but the best bit of being the last Harrier in, was everyone was cheering me on - thanks guys !!!

Great performances with five Hornsea Harriers in the top nine places.

Results for Harriers were as follows;

Junior 5 Km

Senior 10 Km