Fifth Harbour Wallbanger title for Liz Weeks
Vegan Runners and Thanet Roadrunners on top form at Broadstairs
This year's Harbour Wallbanger race marked the 40th-anniversary celebrations of Thanet Roadrunners, the local club that promotes this quirky 7K race from Viking Bay, Broadstairs to Ramsgate Harbour wall and back on the sand, flints, chalk boulders, pebbles, rock pools and seaweed that comprise the Undercliff Walking Trail.
W40 master Liz Weeks, of Ashford Road Runners Club, made it a special event by taking her fifth consecutive women's victory in 32:40 (four seconds faster than last year) to become one of the most successful runners in this event's history. The women's runners-up were W40 Elly Maggs (unattached, 34:02) and Asmaa Hatim (34:29) who led the host club Thanet Roadrunners to the women's team prize.
The top three men were all M40 masters: Chris Edwards (Dover Roadrunners, 28:19), Dean Evans (Vegan Runners, 29:10) and Darren Comeau (Vegan Runners, 29:18) – it takes some experience to plot the fastest route, which is not necessarily the shortest!
Vegan Runners (pictured) were well represented and took the men's team prize by a handsome margin of five minutes. One of the unusual aspects of this event is the team trophy based on a ship's wheel that can be seen in the above image by David J Carr Photography.
There were 177 finishers this year in 1:19:43 and a small army of volunteers from Thanet Roadrunners kept everyone safely on course and made sure they all 'hit the wall' at Ramsgate harbour in the ritual that gives this idiosyncratic event its race title: Harbour Wallbanger.
The winner managed just over 4min/km pace despite the challenging terrain and the leading 35 runners returned to Viking Bay neatly inside 35 minutes (5min/km pace).
The weather was warm and sunny but the 9:00am start time beat the majority of beachgoers to the sands. Highlights on the course for those who dared to look up for a moment include the massive chalk stacks at Louisa Bay and tourist spots like Dumpton Gap. This course video provides an idea of what to expect if you decide to enter next year...and you should as it's a lot of fun.
Previous race reports and results are at runABC South race listing here
Video: Thanet Roadrunners on Facebook
Photo: David J Carr Photography