Race Report – Sunday 1st November

Variety was certainly the order of the day as 159 runners from more than 30 clubs set off on a perfect autumn day. Clear, bright and warm conditions meant the navigation should not have been a problem on the revamped mid-section of the course but a few runners still managed some interesting variations between checkpoints.

The new mid-section breaks the original older single climb into two shorter but steeper rougher ascents over spurs on the ridge with a good bit of high level traversing thrown in the mix. Route choice is now more open with variations possible between most of the checkpoints before the final summit. The feeling is the course is circa 5-8 minutes longer than the original but the hot weather made this difficult to assess.

Stephen Skates from Prestatyn RC (M23-40 winner & overall) lead the field home followed by Jez Brown from Buckley Runners (M40 winner) and Christopher Leigh (M40 2nd). Anne-Marie Jones (F60 1st & overall) brought the ladies home followed by Mary Gillie (M23-40 1st) and Hayley Evans (M23-40 2nd). Tattenhall Runners scoped the Petzl Team Trophy in a close contest between themselves, Pensby (2nd) and Buckley Runners (3rd).

The heat of the day gave the runners a few problems but a quick dunk in the multiple mountain streams gave some relief. The race passed without major incident, with our main concern being getting a few waylaid runners home who had made “unusual” route choices.

Soup & roll, hot drinks & cake for all runners back at the village hall seemed a little out of place in the sunshine but were polished off in the traditional fell runner style nevertheless. Anything left was hoovered up by the returning marshals in the traditional Mountain Rescue style of course ☺

Gripes: Parking – we will sort something out for next year. Results prep & presentation – we will look at ways to speed this up next year as you folks were kept hanging around for too long. Sorry.

Thanks to: All the prize sponsors – Cotswold, Keela, Allcord, Mokoko, Soul Hair, O’Brien Sports Massage, 9bar, Wenlock Spring. Some really great prizes this year from you folks – don’t worry I will be badgering you again in a year’s time. Village Hall – great facility in the heart of the community. Massive thanks to Babs Boardwell for sitting in the glorious sunshine and snapping some fantastic photos all day long – bring a brolly next year 😉