Hosted by Hyde Park Harriers the Summer mile was race number 9 in Eccleshill’s Summer championships. This extremely popular annual race is now in it’s 12th year. As the name suggests, it’s a one mile race, run on tarmac paths entirely in Woodhouse Moor (aka Hyde Park), Leeds. This year’s junior fun run and race walk, usually a big part of the event, were once again cancelled. The fun and excitement was as apparent as ever as heats 1 to 12 accelerated and the atmosphere was positively buzzing! As usual this was a fabulous, well organised event. Friendly marshals shouted words of encouragement to guide runners around the two lap course. Just about the most popular mid summer race on the local calendar it attracted runners from all around the area. The unique concept is that on entering the race, participants state their predicted finish time and are then placed in the appropriate heat with others of a similar pace. The heats intensify as the predicted times become faster and participants sprint for the finish line to the deafening cheers and applause of the excited onlookers. The timing clock is visible along the finishing straight, ticking down as runners strive to put in that final push to shave milliseconds off their final time. Earlier downpours made for challenging conditions underfoot as some areas of the park were a little slippy but thankfully it stayed dry for the event itself. Eccleshill had 10 runners entered but due to injury and other factors just 7 earned a themselves a superb goodie bag of a medal, chocolate, beer and sweets. Finishing in their respective heats were: Heat 2: Daniel Jenkins 05:39, Julie Steele 08:26, Heat 3: Vicky Cousins 07:45, Sarah Rawlings 08:21, Stuart Wagstaff 07:52, Heat 4: Martin Steele 07:19 & Heat 5: Gemma Illingworth 07:16, Well done Team and big thanks to our support crew!
