Chronicle January 2021

51 ST EDWARD’S CHRONICLE

Harriers By Jonny Thomson

Runners are a particular breed of person. After all, these are people who willingly choose to run in big circles, three times a week. Sometimes they run faster, and sometimes they run further. But, like the best things in life, the true joy of the run can never truly be explained. St Edward’s Harriers know this all too well. For every moan, complaint and hesitation there might be at the start of a run, there are twice as many smiles, laughs and proud nods at the end. This has never been truer than after what our Harriers achieved at the end of last term.

Whilst a lot of life nestled down into a COVID-enforced semi-hibernation, the Harriers were in full training. For the first time, we decided to set ourselves a new distance target: a Half Marathon. Throughout the second half of last term, we increased our mileage bit by bit until, on Thursday 3rd December, five Teddies pupils returned to their House Christmas supper with the swagger of the victorious. They had just run 21.1km (13.1 miles) in 1hr 47mins. That’s 5.05 mins per kilometre. For those who glaze over at the mention of running statistics, to put that

in perspective, the world average Half Marathon time is well over 2 hours. If our pupils had run the 2019 Oxford Half Marathon with that time they would have been in the top 15%. Amelie Johnstone, our only girl runner, would have been in the top 10%. For first time Half Marathons, these are remarkable times, and wonderful successes. What’s more, like most runners, the first comment uttered on our return was, ‘that wasn’t so bad … can we do it again next term?ʼ I suspect we will, but faster!

Harriers Jack Gore, Thomas Helm, Amelie Johnstone, Max Lang (Captain), Jonny Thomson, Jake Jilla, Henry Chitsenga and Louis Parr