Czech-out the Harriers Racing at Home and Abroad, April 2025

There was an international flavour to the Rochdale Harriers’ racing exploits over the weekend of 5th and 6th April 2025, with the black, red and gold vest being represented as far away as Tenerife, Prague and Oldham.

Ian Dale travelled to the Canary Islands for the Las Galletas running festival, a collection of 5km, 10.8km and half marathon races around the southern end of the Island.

Ian took part in the 10.8km race alongside 356 others and clocked 47:35 which was enough to claim 56th overall and the second V60 prize.

Meanwhile, Julie Smith hopped on a plane to the capital of the Czech Republic for 13.1miles of the Prague half marathon.

As expected with a big city event, a huge field of 14,102 runners lined up, with a diverse range of abilities, nationalities and stories for taking to the start line. For perspective, the first four elite racers at the sharp end all clocked under 60 minutes.

The route mainly sticks to the banks of the river Vltava, criss-crossing through the Old and New town areas of the city. Julie crossed the line in a time of 2:38:41 for 13,499th place.

Closer to home on more familiar trails, Pete Butterworth and Jennie Ransome tackled the Five Trigs race, a 19 mile circular route starting and finishing in Delph, Saddleworth.

Interestingly the race was run in reverse of previous editions, ticking off trigs at Standedge, White Hill, Blackstone Edge, Tame Scout and Bishops Park, chalking up approximately 3,000ft of elevation.

158 runners were gifted with clear blue skies on the day, but did have to contend with a fierce wind on the open moorland tops. Pete claimed 56th place in a time of 3:45:36 and Jennie shortly followed in 3:49:11 for 60th place.

Ben Hadfield ran at the Fleetwood 10km on Sunday 6th April and continued his recent impressive progress to stop the clock after 38:34, enough for 18th place out of 305 runners.

The route is a looped course on the Fylde coast, which luckily on the day wasn’t blowing too much of a gale and made for pleasant conditions.

The upcoming weekend sees the first race of the year which the club organises on Saturday 12th April, at the Wardle Skyline fell race. The race is in the Club’s and the regional Run The Moors Fell Grand Prix championships.

An approximate 11.5km / 7 mile circular route starts at 2pm from Wardle