Well, it’s been a very busy weekend of racing for the club, with some very interesting achievements at various places and various distances.
Saturday the 6th April was the Howgills Race – the second of this year’s English Fell Racing Championship events and the first long event, which at 14.3 miles and with 6791 feet of climb had a lot of people quietly worrying about beforehand… Which, it turns out, they were right to do. The consensus seems to be that it was TOUGH and the added sunshine provided an extra layer of uncomfortableness.
Well done to those that made it round (Rob 16th & 2nd V40 and Rachel 25th lady in particular) – whether that be all the way round or just as much as they could bear before conking out.
Meanwhile, further North West into the Lakes we had Coledale Horseshoe. John Heneghan successfully defended his 7th place position finish from last year, and Andy Hobson and Braveshorts Wallace were also both out enjoying the 8.5 mile route. (We can also lay partial club-claim to the winning lady Katie Walshaw, as she was down as P&B in the results. Always fun to see results errors in your favour.)
Over in the Peak District, Adam Speed tackled one of the bigger Scout-organised long distance events with The Four Inns, a 40 mile trek from the top of the Peaks to Buxton. Sounded like a cracking day out, in a time of just under 12 hours.
On the other side of the planet, Alex Jones in New Zealand finished the Akatarawa Ultra – a not-to-be-chuckled-at 68 miles and 12,600 feet of climb. His Garmin ran out of juice but according to his Strava it looked like it was TWO LAPS! Hardcore. Hat’s off.
Sunday the 7th was the Baildon Boundary Way Trail Half-Marathon, which we usually have club-folk running most years.
An easier one to fuel, John Navis had a stormer to finish 3rd overall, with Richard and Colin both in the top ten to secure the 1st Men’s Team prize.
Also racing was one of our parent volunteers, Salman, who is working away at putting together some off-road specific training for our Juniors. He mentioned he wasn’t up there with our quicker runners but the true quality of a P&B runner is one of working hard whatever pace you are at, so that’s a strong result in my book, well done chaps.
A pretty inspiring weekend of running. With a club as diverse as ours, there’s always someone doing something interesting.
Spring is here so there are lots more opportunities to race to come.