Date: 6 July 2016
Location: Greetland All Rounders Sports Club
Type: Road
Distance: 10k
The Helen Windsor 10k is a yearly event organised by the Halifax Harriers. This year we thought it’d be a great one to get a load of Pumas involved in.
Two Pumas completed the race in 2015. Last years course was the reverse of this years, and it was tough last year as it was around 30 degrees.
Thankfully the temperature was much more bearable this year, and the course was being run in the opposite direction. Which meant that even though there were still some tough climbs, they were generally shorter than if you’d have run it in the other direction.
So, we arrived, en mass. This was probably the biggest turn out of Pumas for a single race, we almost equalled all the Stainland Lions there! In total we had a pride of 23 Pumas running, and two awesome Pumas supporting. Thanks for being there Sarah Firth and Simon Wilkinson – I know we can attribute our awesome times to your cheering skills!:
The course
The course is all run on road up and around Norland. The roads were fairly nice and quiet which allowed the runners to pretty much take over one side of the road without running the risk of being run over.
As routes go, it’s nice. The scenery down into the valleys below is lovely (if you get chance to enjoy it!). There are some hills, and tough ones at that. but these were always met with nice downhills afterwards.
A water station was placed halfway round, and was much needed as it was quite close weather wise.
The Harriers had placed km markers all the way round the route, and a few of us (ok, maybe just me and Neil) were pretty impressed that they had got these spot on! Well done guys, best ones we’ve seen!
The sting in the tail of the course was that the finish was an uphill, and personally, I struggle with an uphill finish as it’s hard to push yourself up a hill, at a sprint, when you’ve run hard for 50 minutes.
Results
We had some absolutely fantastic results on the night.
A full list of times is available, but a couple of standout mentions for:
Luke Cranfield – 40:37 – First Puma home
Roxanne Armitage – 44.56 – First female Puma home
Mike Hartley – 55:22 – Knocking down his PB 10k by over 5 minutes!!
Debbie Fox – 50:57 – An amazing time in its own right but also the first female over 40!! She got a prize and everything.
Georgia Bottomley – 1:01:48 – For beating her dad Paul!
Wendy Hewitt – 1:02:46 – Who didn’t think she’d beat 1:10 and then smashed it in just over an hour.
And all the other Pumas who took part for just being down right awesome and showing other runners what an amazing team spirit we have.
As always #proudtobeapuma